Weather: Warm Returns but It's Bringing a Buddy

Last Sunday's coastal storm and the resulting hangover of cool weather in our region resulted in eight straight days of below average temperatures, which is the longest such stretch we've seen since the end of October.  This spell of March-like cool has about one more day in it, before we have a quick rebound in weather when the pattern shifts Monday night.

By Tuesday, a warm front will lift through the region, spreading some showers and storms as it passes through. The forecast for Tuesday features optimistic highs in the upper half of the 70's. That assumes early departure of rainfall and the return of sunshine.  If clouds linger, however, and the warm front doesn't push far enough north, temperatures could be a good bit cooler.  Tuesday shapes up as the toughest day to forecast from a temperature standpoint.

The rest of the week has its own share of issues in predicting showers and thunderstorms, but with a warmer air mass in place, temperatures will be much more typical of late spring than what we saw last week.  Temperatures will fall a tiny bit on Wednesday with some oceanic influence in the air mass, but then it will warm back up on Thursday and Friday.  

Highs in the lower 80's look likely for both days as we get into a ridge of high pressure in the atmosphere.  With a warmer and more unstable air mass in place, we could see some scattered storms. Should these occur, they will most likely occur during the afternoon hours.

A weak front approaches and stalls nearby for the weekend, again with a chance of thunder at times.  There will be a few chances of showers and storms here and there over the course of the next week.

Tom Thunstrom is the editor and publisher of Phillyweather.net. You can follow the site on Twitter at @phillywx or on _Facebook_.