April 10th, 2008 Forecast

Now (3 PM): Skies are cloudy for the most part in the region. Low clouds exist from Philadelphia on east and south with high clouds moving in from the west. Some showers are across Central PA and will be moving east through the late afternoon and early evening hours. Temperatures are in the upper 50's and low 60's north and west of the city where there was more sunshine earlier with mid 50's along I-95 and cooler weather (near 50) along the coast. Some weak showers are also in South Jersey along the coast and moving northeast. Those should miss Philadelphia.

Tonight: Mostly cloudy skies will continue but it will be milder than past nights as we have a south to southeast wind drawing slightly milder temperatures up. A chance of showers is in the forecast as a weak cold front moves through but these showers should be light. Temperatures will range from 46 to 50 across the region.

Thursday: The combination of west winds and skies that should become mostly sunny for a while during the midday hours will allow temperatures to warm rather significantly. The highest temperature we have seen so far this year is 72 and I think tomorrow will best that as I'm going for 74 in Philadelphia and low to mid 70's for everyone else but the Shore. If clouds hold longer we may stay a tad cooler but I do think the region sees enough sunshine during the midday hours to allow for a big warmup.

Clouds increase again in the late evening as a warm front from a stronger storm system to the west begins to exert its influence over the weather in the region. Friday will be cooler as winds will be from the southeast for much of the day before veering south late in the afternoon. The 67 degree forecast will likely verify for Philadelphia on west, with places east of the city possibly struggling to break 60 until late in the afternoon due to southeast winds off of the Atlantic. Showers and thunderstorms will fire up west of the city on Friday and we could see some storms from Philly on north during the afternoon, with a greater chance of storms Friday night and again Saturday with the cold front itself. I'll have more on this storm system tomorrow morning and I'll talk about the impacts we could see.

New Hurricane Forecast: The latest of William Gray's forecasts for the 2008 Hurricane Season was released today in the Bahamas at the Bahamas Weather Conference (nice work if you land a trip there!). Dr. Gray is forecasting 15 named tropical systems, of which eight will strengthen to hurricane strength and four of which will be Category 3 or higher.

In Case You Missed It: Tom Lamaine from CBS 3 is reportedly being offered early retirement. Lamaine, a veteran weathercaster and former radio announcer, is among several CBS employees who are either being offered retirement benefits (in the case of the Philadelphia market) or are being laid off altogether in other markets. One prominent Midwestern meteorologist just got his walking papers from the CBS affiliate in Minneapolis.

Tags: daily forecast, Tom Lamaine, William Gray, hurricane season forecast