Metro Detroit weather: Winds of change are blowing

'Normal' temps to return soon

DETROIT – If you haven’t been outside yet, you’d better rush out there and feel these warm temps before they’re gone, possibly for good.

As of the time I'm writing this, a cold front extended from roughly the tip of the Thumb to Bay City to Grand Rapids. Ahead of the front, temperatures soared once again well into the 70s Tuesday (24-25 degrees Celsius for our Canadian neighbors). But behind the front, which is nothing more than the front edge of the cooler air, temperatures are in the upper 50s to low 60s (15-16 degrees Celsius). Get ready, it’s coming!

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While there might be a brief later afternoon or early evening shower for a few of us, those will be gone rather quickly, and skies will clear overnight. Lows will be much cooler than we woke up to this morning, generally in the upper 40s (9 degrees Celsius) to low 50s (11 degrees Celsius). Tuesday afternoon’s windy conditions will settle down to just a northwest wind at 2 to 5 mph.

It will be mostly sunny on Wednesday, and still mild (but not as warm as Tuesday), with highs near 70 degrees (21 degrees Celsius). Wind will be light and variable.

Wednesday’s sunrise is at 7:51 a.m., and Wednesday’s sunset is at 6:44 p.m.

There will be increasing clouds Wednesday night, with lows near 50 degrees (10 degrees Celsius).

It will be mostly cloudy on Thursday, with rain chances increasing during the day. The farther east you are, the better the rain chance. Highs will rise into the upper 50s (15 degrees Celsius).

Rain continues Thursday night, although likely tapering off toward morning. Lows will be in the low 40s (6 degrees Celsius).

It will be mostly cloudy and really chilly on Friday, with highs only in the low to mid-50s (11-12 degrees Celsius), and it’ll feel cooler than that due to a stiff breeze. Making matters worse, there could even be a few scattered showers.

Friday night will become partly cloudy, with lows in the upper 30s (3-4 degrees Celsius). I think we’ll have enough wind overnight to mitigate any frost concerns but, if the wind abates, temps would drop more and frost would become much more likely.

Saturday will be partly cloudy, with highs in the mid-50s (12 degrees Celsius). It will become mostly clear Saturday night, with lows in the mid- to upper 30s. There is a frost potential in our coldest spots outside of Detroit Urban Heat Island.

Sunday has become a more difficult forecast, because one normally reliable computer model is now introducing a weak upper level disturbance moving from northwest to southeast across the Great Lakes. If this materializes (and the models generally have trouble with weak disturbances this far out), then our mostly sunny start to the day would be followed by increasing clouds, and maybe even a stray shower. We’ll see. I’ll keep you updated. Highs will be in the upper 50s (14 degrees Celsius).

Halloween outlook

On Monday, I took a look at the really long range computer models, and they suggested a big area of high pressure across the eastern U.S. Tuesday's models are showing the same thing.

Obviously, two weeks in advance, things can change -- and radically, too -- but until I see any indication of this, the models still indicate that we’d have a dry Halloween for the kids, with seasonably normal cool evening temperatures.

I’ll keep an eye on the patterns, and remember: if this super long range forecast pans out, you read it here first. If it doesn’t, then forget that I said anything about it this far out.

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