Spring Continues, but Winter Waits in the Wings

Now

Partly sunny, very warm. A retreat of the jet stream northward into Canada has allowed early spring warmth to flood most of the country today, with freezing temperatures limited to a tiny sliver of northern Minnesota and North Dakota. Readings in the 60s reached into much of New England, and the Mid Atlantic region saw many low 80s. In the metro area, Dulles was 81° by 2pm, but the local readings were short of the upper 80s in the great March heat wave of 1990, during which Dulles set 6 consecutive daily records, including its all-time March record of 89° on the 12th.

A strong cold front working its way southward over the next couple of days will bring more wintry conditions back by the weekend.

Temperature chart at 2pm today from Unisys

Tonight and Tomorrow

Mostly cloudy, warm, chance of showers. Skies will remain mostly cloudy tonight with only a slight chance of showers and lows in the mid 50s (near or above the average highs for this time of year). Tomorrow will be mostly cloudy with a 70% chance of showers or thunderstorms in the afternoon and evening, highs 73-76°.

For the outlook through the rest of the week and into the weekend, scroll down to Jason's post below.

Mediaorology: DC destruction

It seems to have flown in below the radar screen, but Sunday's WaPo previewed the latest installment of The Weather Channel's disaster mockumentary, "It Could Happen Tomorrow". In "It", an imagined F-4 tornado rampages through Spin City, going right up the mall at 5pm on a Friday, "through the Washington Monument, between the museums and smack into the Capitol dome!" (There's no word on the fate of K Street.) In the tradition of the series, it uses a nearby event, the La Plata tornado of 2002, as a model for the DC destruction. The show, which premiered Sunday night, will be repeated soon and often in true TWC fashion. Look for it at 9:30pm Friday and 12:30am and 2:30am Saturday morning.

Graphic from The Weather Channel