What a spectacular weekend we had! It doesn’t always work out this way, but it sure is terrific when we combine sunshine along with the week’s most pleasant temperatures and get the timing right so it all happens on a weekend. But what a difference a day makes.
We replaced Sunday’s warmer air mass with a much cooler one (and the east winds didn’t help, either) and, despite keeping the sunshine, temperatures were much cooler this afternoon.
Skies will remain mostly clear overnight, with lows in the low 20s (-5 degrees Celsius). Winds will back to the northeast, and increase to 15 to 20 mph after midnight.
Mostly sunny to partly cloudy on Tuesday, with highs near 40 degrees (4 to 5 degrees Celsius). Northeast wind at 15 to 20 mph.
Astronomical Spring officially begins at 12:15 p.m.! At that moment, the sun will be directly over the equator as it transitions from being over the southern hemisphere for their summer to the northern hemisphere for our summer. This is called the vernal equinox (vernal meaning “spring,” equinox meaning “equal nights”). By the way, a lot of people have been asking why Detroit doesn’t have exactly twelve hours between sunrise and sunset on the day of the equinox and the answer is simple geometry. On the equinox, higher latitudes have longer days than lower latitudes. For example, locations at 60 degrees latitude have ten more minutes of daylight than at the equator. Here in Detroit, Tuesday’s sunrise is at 7:37 a.m., and Tuesday’s sunset is at 7:46 p.m.
Becoming mostly cloudy Tuesday night, with lows in the low 20s (-5 degrees Celsius).
Mostly cloudy to start on Wednesday, then becoming partly cloudy. Highs again near 40 degrees (4 to 5 degrees Celsius).
Mostly clear Wednesday night, with lows in the mid 20s (-4 degrees Celsius).
Mostly sunny both Thursday and Friday, with highs in the mid 40s (6 to 7 degrees Celsius).
Saturday is the only truly tricky day of the forecast. The computer models are showing a robust storm system passing south of the Great Lakes region. But there is a very important difference between our two main long range models: the American model (GFS) that you’ve heard about is maintaining a very strong surface ridge of high pressure extending from James Bay southward across Michigan, with this high suppressing that storm far enough south that we don’t get any impact whatsoever. However, the European model (ECMWF) suggests that this high will be weaker and, thus, will allow that storm to drift farther north…and that would give us a chance for rain and snow. There is no way to just pick one model or the other today…we’ll just keep an eye on things and update you through the week. Highs will be in the low 40s (5 degrees Celsius), so the time of day will also be important in determining the precipitation type if the European model ends up verifying.
Sunday looks partly cloudy, with highs in the low 40s (5 degrees Celsius).
