Rains Diminish, Staying Gloomy on Friday

By Jay Grymes & Steve Caparotta

WAFB First Alert Quickcast:

- rains continue into the night

- rains ending on Friday, stays cloudy & cool

- sunshine returns for the weekend

The first of today’s rains arrived a little later in the day than we expected, but they still got here in plenty of time to add to the mess of this evening’s commute home.  Thankfully there haven’t been any extra-heavy downpours as yet and very few rumbles of thunder.  However, as the afternoon and evening progress, be ready for occasions where the rains do fall a bit heavier.

There is no severe weather threat ... and no concern for significant flooding, although we’ll likely see standing water in the usual spots later this evening and tonight.

Everyone gets rain tonight, with the heaviest rains exiting the area well before sun-up on Friday; in fact, for many of you, the most significant rains will have passed to the east not long after midnight.  But there will still be additional, mainly-light rains to come into Friday.  We’re keeping scattered showers in the forecast for Friday morning, so it’s looking like a wet morning bus ride and morning commute.  Morning temperatures will be in the 40°s, so let’s call it “chilly & wet” to paint the complete morning picture.

We’ve got showers winding down through the morning and into mid-day, with a mainly-dry forecast for Friday afternoon.  Yes, a lingering sprinkle or two during the afternoon is still possible, but nothing in terms of real accumulations.  Regardless, the clouds will remain through the day: add in a northerly to northwesterly wind and you’ll have a cool, if not downright chilly, Friday afternoon on the way.  We’ve mentioned it a couple of times in our forecasts: many WAFB neighborhoods will be lucky to reach 50° on Friday afternoon.

The clouds will linger into the early hours on Saturday, then should all clear out Saturday morning.  We’ve got a forecasted low in the mid 30°s for the Capital City on Saturday morning with sunshine for most of the day.  Saturday highs should climb into the mid to upper 50°s.  Skies stay clear through Sunday, with a morning low in the mid to upper 30°s and a high in the low 60°s.

Our forecast for next week is a good one.  Not only does it stay dry through most -- in fact, probably all -- of the work week, but there should be plenty of sunshine most days too.  It won’t get as warm as the “spring-like” days in the 70°s that we had earlier this week, but afternoons should return to the 60°s each day with morning lows in the upper 30°s and 40°s.  All-in-all, temperatures will be near-normal to slightly above-normal through the week under fair skies.  Sounds good for January!