Areas of dense fog this morning give way to some sunshine Saturday as high temperatures push toward 50 degrees. Most locations will be hung up in the 40s throughout the day as our upper level trough of low pressure approaches from the west. Rain and snow continues to fall over the mountains into the early afternoon hours with precipitation spreading east toward Baltimore as we head into the early evening hours.
All rain is expected in Baltimore points south and east with a few snowflakes in the northern and western suburbs mixed in. Precipitation amounts will be less than 0.25" in most locations with an end time somewhere around midnight Sunday morning. Behind the trough comes additional concerns for dense fog once the rain ends with lows back in the low to mid 30s.
Dense fog advisories may be needed once again Sunday morning before 10am. Fog should lift as the day rolls on with skies slowly clearing across the area and high temperatures pushing 50 degrees. Skies clear even more late Sunday into Monday with temperatures falling to right around 40 degrees. From there it's a quick warm-up Monday and even a Spring tease. Highs climb toward 65 degrees Monday and stay around 60 degrees through the middle of next week.
Monday is our pick of the week though with tons of sunshine out ahead of our next complex storm system rolling in. A series of low pressure and a slow moving front look to cause us some problems starting late Tuesday into the end of next week. The heaviest of the rain looks to be Wednesday and Thursday before the front tries to clear the area early Friday morning. Rainfall amounts from now (February 1st) through Saturday (February 8th) look to be right around 1-3" in most locations. These numbers of course are likely to change since we are 6+ days out from this actual forecast so stay tuned.
Cooler temperatures arrive late next week with highs remaining at or above average. Long range 8-14 day trends continue to suggest the same thing with above average temperatures and above average precipitation chances through mid February which means no real signs of Winter on the horizon.
So the big question is to if Winter is over not. Both one and three month outlooks from NOAA suggest above average temperatures and equal chances of precipitation continuing which is bad news for snow lovers. Hope is not lost though as we can still get snow in these types of patterns and we also have the month of March to look forward to.
If your remember back just one year ago most of our snow came in late February and March where we picked up a little over 8.8" of snow. Snow lovers don't give up hope yet!! Yes we are tied for 3rd for snow-less winters but there is still a shot for snow at anytime between now and March 30th. Spring is still 40+ days out!! Stay tuned.
