In the Northeast, a high pressure area now in control will be reinforced by another high from northeastern Canada. In the "what could go wrong?" department, a batch of cloudiness has appeared east of New England and has been spreading southwestward toward the New Jersey coast this morning.
Cloudiness covers a large area. A few pockets of clearing show up where south winds ride downhill from mountains to lowlands. Air warms and dries with descent. Notice clearing downwind (northwest of) the Smoky Mts.
So, there could be more showers at times late next week as forest we can tell. For now we are stumped. But, it is our beleaf that this weekend you will like being outside. I know a dogwood. It may be a little cool for the beech, but you can take your dog for walk in the bark. What about next weekend? Don't ax.
If the pattern turns out damp as suggested by this map for Sunday, it could turn gray and drizzly from D.C. to New York City for early next week. If the high does not move offshore and no disturbance approaches from the west, it would be sunny and warm.
Two things stand out: (1) a warmup this weekend and early next week (the top graph), and (2) the overall dryness for the weekend and early next week. This graph is for Philadelphia.
This map shows a cold front advancing across the Midwest and highlights the easterly flow of moist air from the Atlantic that has kept the morning gray and chill around from Maine to Maryland.
High clouds are common this morning from Pennsylvania to central New England. These clouds typically do not cause any precipitation that reaches the ground.
The cold front on this map is moving eastward and will help trigger thunderstorms that can cause heavy rain and locally damaging winds in the I95 corridor tonight.
This radar picture from 11AM EDT showed the rain area thinning near Chicago but thickening farther southwest. Chicago is not finished with this storm system.
