The bottom line
Oh the wind! It’s been a wild couple of days around here. The nasty northeasterly storm that brought wind gusts to 40 to 60 mph along with rain and snow earlier this week is now centered off the coast of Nova Scotia, Canada.
So, good news for windswept New Jersey: conditions have already calmed down significantly.
Also, as high pressure builds from the southwest on Thursday, we will enjoy a beautiful day of spring weather. Quiet, dry, smooth, you can’t ask for much more than that.
Our next weather will be a cold front arriving on Friday. That will drive in the clouds. And a couple of rounds of irregular showers. It will pick up a strong breeze. Temperatures will drop about 10 degrees over the last weekend of winter. And that’s it.
Thursday
As of this writing, the maximum wind gust in New Jersey is 17 mph. Much calmer than NJ’s top gust of 62mph in the last 48 hours. (In Atlantic City Tuesday afternoon.)
Thursday will be bright and sunny with a few passing clouds. Same as Wednesday, but with much lighter winds. Gusts from the northwest can reach 20 mph at times on Thursday, but overall it will be a much calmer and more enjoyable day.
We started Thursday morning with temperatures between 20 and 30 (cities and coast). Pretty cold. But we’ll heat up quickly, averaging 50 on Thursday afternoon.
There are some nuances to that high-temperature forecast. The cool spot may be the Jersey shore, if a sea breeze forms. (The land mass warms faster than the water, a local circulation sets in, and cold ocean-influenced air blows onto beaches.) Temperatures can be stuck in the 40s there.
In the meantime, I wouldn’t be surprised to see 60+ degrees in the interior of South Jersey.
Thursday night remains calm and dry. Expect partly cloudy skies, with low temperatures around the 40 degree mark.
Friday
We will endure one more day of temperatures above normal, to close the working week. However, things will become somewhat shaky at the end of the day.
Although you may see a ray of sunshine early on Friday, the clouds will fill in quite quickly and completely by noon. The first batch of showers will arrive on Friday afternoon. They will be irregular (separated) and light (not heavy). You may be able to skip the umbrella altogether.
High temperatures will approach 60 degrees.
A cold front will push northwest to southeast across New Jersey Friday night, creating another opportunity for quick rain. The winds will also start to pick up, in the category of “windy”.
Saturday
A third and final chance of rain will arrive on Saturday morning, mainly along the south coast. This might be the heaviest and most stable of the bunch; still, don’t expect much.
The sun should rise on Saturday afternoon. But as our new, cooler air mass takes root, it will be a windier, cooler day. Highs drop to around 50 degrees. Close to normal for mid-March.
Sunday
The last full day of winter! And it will be the coldest of the next week, how fitting.
20 in the morning. Mid 40’s in the afternoon. Mostly sunny and dry. But also windy. It’s not terrible. Just cold.
The Extended Forecast
The start of next week should be quiet, with a warming trend scheduled for early spring. 50-ish on Monday, then mid-50s Tuesday and Wednesday. Our next chance for raindrops should wait until the second half of next week. And I don’t see any threat of winter weather on the horizon.
Dan Zarrow is chief meteorologist for Townsquare Media New Jersey. Follow him on Facebook or Twitter for the latest forecast and real-time weather updates.
