A brisk breeze continued to blow Thursday evening, importing cool air from Canada. Chilly temperatures are expected out the door early Friday.

QUICKLY COOLER

Summer heat is in retreat for now. After highs in the mid 80s Wednesday, equaling the warmest of the year, we were still shy of 70° at 4pm Thursday afternoon. That was a cold front the passed late Wednesday and behind it, early Thursday morning temperatures dipped to mid-April levels in some outlying locations. The coolest 43° in Richmond (Wayne co.) & Portland (Jay co.). The second night after a cold front is typically the coldest and those 40s will be area-wide Friday morning. There will be an east breeze through the night and IF the winds go light enough, perhaps a temperature or two dips into the 30s in some locations.

There is still some “drama” in the race day forecast as a weak, upper-low churns to the south by Sunday morning. It will definitely be responsible for added clouds by Saturday and Sunday. There still remains and a VERY SMALL chance of a stray shower developing but prospects for any rain Sunday and perhaps the next week are very small.
A real DRY SPELL is emerging and the update from the Drought Center this morning is that ‘abnormally dry’ conditions have increased 10% since last week state-wide. No real rain is expected to end May. Dry conditions to expand.

HEAT AND HUMIDITY are on hold for now but it is coming. 80s return for Memorial Day. Then an upper-level ‘dome of heat’ will develop overhead. Under this feature we will heat up and we are expecting the hottest and most humid air of 2023 to arrive next week and to close the month of May.