7:00 AM | *Quite chilly today for the early part of May...even colder and very windy to begin the Mother's Day weekend*
Paul Dorian
6-Day forecast for the Philadelphia, PA metro region
Today
Mainly cloudy, a bit of a breeze, unusually chilly for this time of year, occasional showers are likely from late morning on, highs in the low-to-mid 50’s (normal high is now 71 degrees at PHL)
Tonight
Mainly cloudy with the chance of showers in the early evening hours, cold, lows in the upper 30’s
Thursday
Partly sunny, cool, breezy, lower 60's for afternoon highs
Thursday Night
Partly cloudy, cold, near 40 degrees for late night lows
Friday
Mainly cloudy, quite cool, good chance for PM showers, mid-to-upper 50's; rain and/or snow showers possible at night
Saturday
Partly sunny, very windy, quite cold for this time of year, chance of a couple of rain and/or snow showers, upper 40's
Sunday
A cold start to the day, but mainly sunny skies will help to boost afternoon temperatures to near 60 degrees with much less wind than Saturday
Monday
Mainly cloudy, cool, chance of showers, near 60 degrees
Discussion
Showers will develop today as low pressure intensifies off-shore and it’ll be unusually cool as the thick cloud cover will combine with an easterly flow to keep highs confined to the low-to-mid 50’s. These kind of highs could very well end up being some of the lowest maximum temperatures ever recorded for the 6th of May. After a breezy and cool day on Thursday, more rain will push into the Mid-Atlantic region on Friday afternoon as an even stronger low pressure system moves in this direction from the Tennessee Valley and there can be rain and/or snow showers on Friday night. This system will intensify significantly by the time it reaches the New England coastline on Saturday morning and it’ll usher in a very cold air mass for this time of year. Not only will it be an unusually cold day for this part of the nation on Saturday, but it’ll be very unstable as well with an extremely strong upper-level low sitting right on top of the region. As a result, NW winds will become very strong and there can be a couple of rain and/or snow showers in the area. Mother’s Day (Sunday) will get off to a very cold start and it’ll stay on the cool side of normal in the afternoon; however, the PM hours should be a lot more bearable than Saturday with far less wind and plenty of sunshine. Looking ahead, a warmer weather pattern finally appears on the horizon likely beginning during the 3rd week of May and tropical season will not be far behind.
Meteorologist Paul Dorian
Perspecta, Inc.
perspectaweather.com