7:00 AM | ***Beneficial steady rain from early tonight into early Thursday...maybe a thunderstorm...windy, colder on Thursday and Friday with instability showers...first snowflakes possible***

6-Day forecast for the Washington, D.C. metro region

Today

Partly sunny, not quite as mild as yesterday, but still above-normal, highs in the lower 60’s; Light and variable winds

Tonight

Mainly cloudy, chilly, maybe a shower or two, lows in the upper 40’s

Wednesday

Mainly cloudy, mild, chance of late afternoon rain, near 65 degrees for afternoon highs

Wednesday Night             

Mainly cloudy, windy, chilly, periods of rain, maybe a thunderstorm, near 40 degrees for late night lows

Thursday

Clouds and limited sun, windy, colder, chance of rain showers which can be mixed in with some snowflakes and/or ice pellets across northern/western suburbs, near 50 degrees

Friday

Partly sunny, windy, cold, chance of showers, upper 40’s

Saturday

Partly sunny, still windy and chilly, lower 50’s

Sunday

Partly sunny, breezy, chilly, lower 50’s

Discussion

High pressure will generally remain in control of the weather during the next couple of days, but then a complex low pressure storm system will dominate the scene later in the week. An upper-level trough of low pressure will push into the central US by mid-week and then deepen by later Thursday as it slides into the Mid-Atlantic/Northeast US. At this point, the deep upper-level trough will become quite a slow-mover and “forced” to rotate around the northeastern states for a few days thanks to intense blocking high pressure to the north that will be centered over the northeastern part of Canada. At the surface level, an initial low pressure system will push into the Great Lakes region, and then a secondary low will form somewhere near the northern Mid-Atlantic coastline during the latter part of the week.

The end result here will be occasional (and very beneficial) rain from later tomorrow into early Thursday likely in the range of 0.25” to 0.50” and there can be a thunderstorm or two mixed into the picture as a strong cold front pushes through the area. Occasional “instability” rain showers will be possible from Thursday afternoon through Friday night as the atmosphere remains quite unstable given the strong upper-level trough that will rotate around the northeastern states for awhile. As colder air becomes better established, snow and ice pellets can mix in with the “wraparound” showers from later Thursday through Friday in the some of the far N/W suburbs and look for significant accumulating snow across western Maryland and portions of West Virginia.

Meteorologist Paul Dorian
Arcfield Weather