Good Friday, folks. FINALLY!!!!!!!!!!! That’s what many of us are saying across the state today as fall temperatures have arrived. This is a total pattern change that will also lead us into a pretty wet setup by Sunday and Monday, with another front with even colder air in about a week.

Let’s begin with today and roll forward. Temps in the north may struggle to 70 with partly sunny skies. The rest of the state generally tops out in the low and middle 70s. Winds will be breezy and that will set the stage for a crisp evening for high school football fans.

Saturday starts in the 40s for many and ends with gusty winds from the southwest. That boosts temps as clouds begin to increase. Those clouds are ahead of a slow-moving cold front arriving on Sunday. Widespread rain and thunderstorms look to increase. A nice soaking is possible for many areas as the computer models continue to spit out some nice totals.

The GFS and European Models are now very similar with stripes of greater than 2″ rains showing up..

GFS.

European

Temps will be seasonally chilly through the first half of next week with a few days in the 60s for highs. Lows will be down to the low 40s on a few occasions, with the potential for some of the first upper 30s to show up in some of the colder valleys.

A potent cold front moves in here by the end of next week and should bring more rain ahead of an even chillier shot of air. That could bring us frost or light freeze threat behind it.

This active pattern has another benefit besides temps because it does bring an increase in rainfall. The average of the Ensembles shows above normal rain over the next few weeks…

I’ll throw you another update later today, so check back. Make it a good one and take care.