DETROIT – The weekend weather pattern is coming into a little better focus, and it’s going to be an active one.
But first, Friday evening will be beautiful for our Friday Night high school football games, as the dry weather will continue, and temperatures slowly fall through the 60s (16-18 degrees Celsius).
Some scattered light showers may develop late tonight, but our Friday evening plans should be fine. Temperatures by sunrise will only drop into the upper 50s (14-15 degrees Celsius), with a very light south wind.
If you’ve been following my articles and watching the Local4Casters the past few days, you know we’ve been putting a lot of emphasis on the proximity to our area of an approaching cold front this weekend. To keep this simple, the front will drop down toward us, stop, go back north as a warm front, and then cross our area Sunday morning as a cold front.
Here’s how our in-house high-resolution RPM model is handling things:
The key to our Saturday weather has been how far south the front would travel before stopping. Today’s computer models are bringing it about a county-and-a-half farther south than they were yesterday which, on the scale of the models, is a pretty small adjustment, but that also brings the more substantial rain area farther south, too. Most of us should expect a good chance of rain, with only our South Zone (Lenawee and Monroe Counties) perhaps missing out on most of it. Highs in the South Zone will make it into the mid 70s (24-25 degrees Celsius), with highs cooling into the low to mid 70s (22-23 degrees Celsius) in the central part of our area, and only in the 60s (18-20 degrees Celsius) in the Thumb. South-southeast wind at 4 to 8 mph.
Saturday’s sunrise is at 7:45 a.m., and Saturday’s sunset is at 6:53 p.m. And by the way, although nobody has asked me yet, I know that some of you are wondering when the time change occurs. We officially go off of Eastern Daylight Saving Time and return to Eastern Standard Time at 2:00 a.m. on Sunday, November 5th. So you’ll set your clocks BACK an hour before you go to bed on the night of November 4th, and pick up an extra hour of sleep that night! Mark this down on your calendar so you don’t forget.
Rain with a few thunderstorms continue Saturday night, with lows in the low to mid 60s (17 degrees Celsius). The activity should become much more scattered by late at night so, hopefully, we can dodge those lingering raindrops for the pre-race staging and start of the Detroit Free Press – Chemical Bank Marathon.
The marathon itself will be impacted by the weather, however. The cold front should cross Detroit during the race, with scattered showers possible. It’s going to be a windy race, with the strongest winds occurring in any showers immediately ahead of the front, as well as more generally behind the front. Here is my race forecast:
Sunday afternoon will be very windy, with just a stray shower possible. Temperatures should hold roughly steady in the upper 60s (20 degrees Celsius), and wind gusts could approach 40 mph.
Once we get past the weekend, get ready for a wonderful Pure Michigan fall week ahead! Skies should be mostly sunny for the entire week, with highs starting off in the upper 50s (15 degrees Celsius) on Monday, and warming steadily each day until we reach the mid 70s (23-24 degrees Celsius) by Friday / Saturday. What a week! Might be a good idea to get the car washed on Monday -- you’ll get your money’s worth.
