It was another picture-perfect day Saturday, and the sunshine this time helped us to warm into the 60s for our afternoon high! The quick warming was aided by some very dry air at the surface with dew points down in the 20s for most of the afternoon. Drier air is easier to heat up and cool down since it has a lower specific heat than moist air, so that is why more sunshine gave us warmer temperatures for the afternoon. Likewise, the dry air is allowing temperatures to fall just as fast as they rose this afternoon. We will fall to an overnight low back in the upper 30s under clear skies tonight.

Our Easter Sunday will be another beautiful day with plenty of sunshine and warmer weather! While we start the day a bit on the cool side, we warm into the 60s by noon, and near 70° for the afternoon high! This will be a perfect afternoon for any outdoor Easter plans you may have.

While our rain chances were not in scarcity over the last week, that will be a different story for this week ahead. Our only rain chance will come Monday afternoon with a few scattered showers possible mainly early in the day. This will not be a widespread rain, as most will remain dry for the afternoon.

The overall pattern for the week ahead is what is called a “Rex block”. This is when a low-pressure system breaks away from the overall pattern of the jet stream aloft, blocking a relatively high pressure to the North. This will keep us warmer locally for the week ahead, while generally more clouds and rain will be across the South.

This will lead to afternoon highs in the 70s for most of the week ahead. This is much warmer than average for this time of year, as normal highs are closer to the upper 50s. Highs next week will feel more like the beginning of June than the beginning of April.

If we get that stretch of warmth to play out as forecasted, it will bring us a longer stretch of days reaching the 70-degree mark. It has been a while since we have seen 70-degree days in a row like this. Most of our 70-degree stretches came last fall, so it will definitely feel like spring, if not summer!

As I mentioned, this week will be quite a warm one with some of the objectively better weather coming in the forecast ahead. Our only chance for rain is Monday, but otherwise we are bright and sunny the rest of the week!