DETROIT – It’s finally Friday!
Our “Finally Friday,” as Brandon Roux calls it (he’ll be back Monday, by the way), will end the work week in spectacular fashion with lots of sunshine, low humidity and highs in the upper 70s to near 80 degrees. Wind will be light, moving from the north at 3-6 mph.
Tonight’s sunset is at 8:38 p.m. -- that means we’ll have exactly 14 hours of daylight today.
We’ll have some high, thin cirrus clouds this Friday evening, then more clouds moving in later at night. Lows will be in the mid-to-upper 50s. Winds will diminish to calm air.
Weekend rain with uncertain timing
The computer models predicting this weekend’s weather continue to be a hot mess this Friday morning. It’s remarkable how much disagreement there can sometimes be only one day in advance, but that’s what’s happening.
After looking at forecast upper air data, I think the problem is that the precipitation algorithms in some of the models are being a little too aggressive when it comes to predicting rain. We have a very dry air mass overhead, so we would need to add a lot of moisture from top to bottom to get raindrops to reach the ground this weekend.
I think the lowest 10,000 feet will still be relatively dry midday Saturday, so some of the initial rain will evaporate before getting to us. With that in mind, here’s what we expect:
We’ll probably start our Saturday with partial sunshine, but then cloud up steadily as moisture aloft starts increasing. While scattered showers may be possible in the first half of the afternoon, chances increase during the late afternoon and evening, with chances being higher the farther west and southwest you are in our area.
Saturday highs will only reach the mid-70s. Showers are likely Saturday night, with lows near 60 degrees.
We’ll still have some showers on Sunday, but I don’t think the day will be a washout. Showers may end up being scattered, with chances diminishing a bit as the day progresses.
Hopefully we’ll be able to dodge the drops at the American Cancer Society’s Relay for Life event at the Detroit Zoo Sunday morning (I’ll see you there), as well as at the Red Hot Chili Peppers concert Sunday night. (I graduated high school with drummer Chad Smith…welcome home, Chad!)
Dry next week
Most of next week looks dry, and if the European computer model ends up being correct, we could be dry the entire week through next weekend. We’ll see how that pans out, but if it does, you’ll need to keep watering those flowers and lawns.
Highs all week next week will be not far from 80 degrees, with potential warming heading into next weekend.
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