DETROIT – If you are out and about today, you may be startled, perhaps frightened at first, to see a large, circular yellow object in the sky.
It’s been so long since we’ve seen it that you may have forgotten that it’s our sun: a big ball of hot gases and plasma that’s 93 million miles away and heats our planet. We will start our day with breaks in a mid-level cloud deck, and those clouds will steadily diminish through the morning until we have mostly clear skies and the big yellow orb shining down on us.
Highs in the upper 60s (20 to 21 degrees Celsius) will feel so much better than it did during the week with all of that cloud cover.
Wind today will blow from the northeast at 5 to 10 mph, which will keep things a little cooler in the Thumb.
Today’s sunrise is at 7:10 a.m., and today’s sunset is at 7:49 p.m.
Partly cloudy Friday night (we’ll probably start the night mostly moony, then see some passing clouds overnight). Lows in the mid 50s (13 degrees Celsius). Northeast wind at 4 to 8 mph.
Weekend forecast
The weekend forecast still appears to be on track with the timing of the approaching cold front. Partly cloudy skies Saturday morning will be replaced by incoming cloud cover by afternoon. I still think most of us will remain dry through late afternoon/early evening.
If there’s any small chance for a shower between 4:00 and 7:00 p.m., it would be in Monroe County and west of US-23, but chances should be fairly limited. Highs Saturday in the mid to upper 70s (25 to 26 degrees Celsius), depending upon how long we hold onto some sunshine, sure will feel nice.
Showers and thunderstorms are likely Saturday night ahead of the approaching cold front and a very dynamic accompanying upper level system. While that upper level support would promote strong storms if this timing was during the warmest part of the day, it may be too stable at night to generate much severe weather with this batch of storms, but still remain alert just in case anything flares up. Lows in the mid 60s (18 degrees Celsius).
We start Sunday with a lingering shower or thunderstorm early, then skies become partly cloudy, with highs again in the mid to upper 70s (25 to 26 degrees Celsius).
Most of next week continues to look dry with some sunshine. There does appear to be a cold front on the horizon which would give us some showers Wednesday night into Thursday morning, but the rest of the week appears mostly sunny or partly cloudy, with seasonable temps. We sure deserve this after the week we’ve just had! And the long-range computer models suggest that next weekend will be spectacular -- stay tuned.