After a fairly warm day (away from the coast, anyway, where temperatures ran some 10°+ cooler), we’ll turn even warmer on Wednesday as high pressure slips offshore, pumping in warmer air from the south and southwest. Wednesday starts around 50° with perhaps a few patches of fog, and we’ll warm well into the low-to-mid-70s under a mix of sun and clouds. Winds will be a bit breezy out of the southwest, generally around 10-15 MPH during the afternoon as mixing from daytime heating taps into 25-30 MPH winds a few thousand feet off the deck.

A warming trend kicks off Tuesday as high pressure moves overhead and eventually offshore. It’ll be quite a nice day after we start around 40° in the morning; temperatures will head well into the 60s by afternoon with plenty of sunshine to be had and comfortable relative humidity values. Winds won’t be quite as strong as they were on Monday, either, with speeds generally around 5 MPH. Winds will shift around to the southeast as high pressure slips into the Atlantic, a harbinger of warmer air to come.

After some much-needed rain on Sunday, sunshine and warmth return for the new work week as high pressure remains the main weather driver for a few days before shower chances return to the picture later in the week.

A storm system will affect the area on Sunday, bringing us some showers at times and maybe even a few thunderstorms as we get into the afternoon and evening hours. We need the rain as moderate drought continues to envelop the area, and a half-inch to even an inch of rain will be possible. While that won’t put an end to the drought by any stretch, it will certainly help.

While Valentine’s Day looks lovely, Sunday will decidedly not live up to its name as a storm system affects the area. From there, quite a warming trend develops, especially for the second half of next week.

Another quiet and generally seasonably pleasant day is head on Friday. We get off to a bit of a chilly start as lows fall to the mid-to-upper 30s in the morning. A northeasterly breeze will make it feel closer to freezing to start the day, but temperatures will warm to around 60° in the afternoon under predominantly sunny skies. This is a few degrees below mid-February norms, but nothing too outrageous.