DETROIT – As expected, our Hump Day turned out to be a pretty nice day, with sunshine breaking out and temperatures reaching the low to mid-70s (22 to 24 degrees Celsius). However, things start getting increasingly active for the next couple of days, as you’ll read below.
After a beautiful evening, clouds will increase Wednesday night, and a scattered shower is possible anytime after midnight. Lows remain mild -- in the low 60s (16 degrees Celsius), with a very light wind from the southeast.
Thursday morning’s sunrise is at 7:45 a.m.
This week
A few showers are possible Thursday morning, but a few breaks of sun are also possible late morning into the early afternoon.
Then, we see a better chance for showers and thunderstorms late-afternoon into the evening hours. Highs, as long as we get those breaks of sun, should reach the upper 70s (26 degrees Celsius), with a south wind at 5 to 10 mph.
Scattered showers and even a thunderstorm are possible Thursday night, with lows again in the low 60s (16 degrees Celsius).
Friday’s weather will be dictated by your proximity to a front stalled across the area. Although it’s impossible to pin down its location exactly, my current thinking is for it to be aligned from roughly a Port Huron to Novi to Adrian line.
Those north and west of the front will see periodic showers and even some thunderstorms through Friday night. However, south and east of the front, it will be more unstable and, while scattered showers are likely during the day, strong to potentially severe storms are possible Friday evening -- and some of our high school football games will be impacted.
The Friday evening thunderstorms will transition to just regular showers Friday night.
Severe storm risk
There are both positives and negatives playing into our severe storm risk. A negative (if you’re a thunderstorm trying to become severe) is that we’ll be past our warmest part of the day, so the atmosphere won’t be as potentially unstable as it will be in the mid-afternoon.
On the positive side, we’ll have pretty good wind shear -- veering wind direction as you go from the surface upward -- due to a surface low pressure area tracking right across the area. Wind shear makes it easier for severe storms to organize.
There are a lot of moving parts to this aspect of the forecast, and we’ll certainly keep you informed on Local 4, at ClickOnDetroit.com, and on the nation’s best weather app. Speaking of our app, if you’re one of the few who doesn’t yet have it, this would be a really good time to download it onto your phone. Just search under WDIV in the app store and, best of all, it’s free. Once you have it, you’ll have our real-time radar in the palm of your hand and can monitor the approaching storms as easily as we do on TV (you can pan and zoom the radar map with your fingers).
Highs Friday will range from low to mid-70s (22 to 23 degrees Celsius) south and east of the aforementioned front, and mid- to upper 60s (18 to 20 degrees Celsius) north and west of the front.
Weekend forecast
Showers should end Saturday morning and, with a bit of luck, perhaps we’ll start getting some breaks of sun by late afternoon. It’ll be a breezy day, with temperatures holding relatively steady in the mid- to upper 50s (12 to 14 degrees Celsius).
Sunday should be a “sun day,” but it’ll remain breezy, which will make highs in the low 60s (16 degrees Celsius) feel a little cooler.
Next week
Monday and Tuesday look fantastic, with plenty of sun and highs in the mid-60s (18 degrees Celsius) Monday and in the upper 60s (20 degrees Celsius) on Tuesday.
Our next rain chance now appears to be either Wednesday or Thursday.
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