SUNNY SKIES: Talk about a beautiful stretch of weather! We’ve got sunny skies for most of the week ahead. In fact, you’ll see very sunny skies through Wednesday. Want someone to thank? Say it to that strong area of high pressure controlling the weather in the Northeast for the next few days.
METEOROLOGY 101: Big areas of high pressure are big areas of falling air. Pressure is how we “weigh” air. When air is falling, it collects at the ground. If there is more air at the ground, then the air “weighs” more. Hence, high air pressure.
We usually only get clouds and rain when there is a lot of rising air. Rising air means there is less air at the ground, which is you’ll see a big area of low pressure on a weather map when we have a lot of clouds and rain.
Falling air, like that from a big area of high pressure, is stronger and has more “muscle” than rising air, so it prevents air from rising. If air is not rising, then we can enjoy beautiful sunny skies. This is the meteorology behind why we have such nice weather for the next few days.
WARMER WEATHER: After another day with highs in the 60s for your Sunday, the 70s return on Monday. We’ll grab a high of 74 Monday afternoon. Then, we climb to 76 on Tuesday, 78 on Wednesday, and the 80s on Thursday. We get warmer on Thursday because of a cold front, believe it or not.
Before cold fronts cross over us, they usually draw up warmer air from the south, and this one on Thursday will do just day. After it crosses, then the front does its namesake: we’ll get a bit cooler. If the front were stronger, we’d get a lot cooler. We can thank a strong cold front for this weekend’s cooler weather.
MORE CLOUDS: Later next week, partly sunny skies return. We get them on Thursday because that weak cold front adds some more clouds to the skies. Yet, we don’t get any rain from it–just more fluffy, white clouds in the sky. Friday is a different story. Another cold front on Friday will cause us to have cloudy skies and a few showers. Between the cold fronts and our current weather pattern, it will feel comfortable outside all week.
MORE SUN: After a cloudy Friday, sunny skies return on Saturday. On Sunday, we’ll start out sunny, but more clouds will fill the skies in the afternoon ahead of a big area of low pressure. This big area of low pressure will cause clouds and rain next Monday, October 9th. Looks for highs in the 70s next weekend.
-Meteorologist Drew Anderson
