Capital Weather Gang from The Washington Post

Daily forecast for the Washington area

D.C.-area forecast: One more wintry day today before spring returns for the weekend

'You tell me what it all means. A chilly winter kiss.' (chasingmailboxes via Flickr

Snow squalls near the Washington Monument, Feb. 9. (chasingmailboxes via Flickr)

TODAY’S DAILY DIGIT
A somewhat subjective rating of the day’s weather, on a scale of zero to 10.

5/10: Cold but we should have calmer conditions & some (mainly morning?) sunshine. Winter how we missed you. :)

EXPRESS FORECAST

Today: More clouds than sun. Slight precip chance. Highs: mid-30s to around 40.
Tonight: Mostly cloudy. Slight breeze. Lows: upper 20s to mid-30s.
Tomorrow: Filtered sunshine, clouds may dominate. Highs: upper 50s to mid-60s.
Sunday: Cloudy with a few showers possible. Highs: low-to-mid 60s.

FORECAST IN DETAIL

Spring is waiting behind today’s wintry shadows. More weather whiplash is upon us, and there may be additional dips and rises in the times ahead. The main drawback is fairly dominant clouds for the next few days.

Today (Friday): It’s still chilly, but calmer. A sunny morning commute is possible, yet clouds should battle sunshine fairly effectively by afternoon. Don’t be surprised by a quick sprinkle, shower, flurry, sleet spurt, or snow shower. Especially afternoon hours. We have a tumultuous atmosphere overhead, even if quieter at the surface. Breezes may try to stay around or below 10 mph out of the west and west-southwest. High temperatures struggle but eventually range from the mid-30s to around 40 by late afternoon. Confidence: Medium-high

Tonight: Fairly cloudy. Sorry if this hampers viewing the eclipse of the full “snow” moon and comet. Later is better … skies could be a bit clearer around midnight. Temperatures are almost steady with low temperatures in the upper 20s outside the Beltway to mid-30s downtown. Southwest winds near 10 mph are doing their warming thing overnight! Confidence: Medium-high

For related traffic news, check out Dr. Gridlock. Keep reading for the forecast into next week.

Tomorrow (Saturday): More clouds than sunshine may be the story once again. But at least with continued southwest breezes near 10 mph we don’t really need bright sunshine to feel warm, right? High temperatures climb into the upper 50s to perhaps mid-60s. Stay tuned if we have to tweak these temperatures higher! There is a slight, 10 percent, shower chance, too. Confidence: Medium

Tomorrow night: A quick and light evening shower is possible (20 percent chance), but overall it’s just cloudy. Very cloudy. Westerly breezes may stay light, around 5 mph. Low temperatures just before dawn should briefly dip into the mid-to-upper 40s. Confidence: Medium

A LOOK AHEAD

Sunday: Clouds rule once again. Light rain showers are possible, especially in the second half of the day, as south-southeasterly breezes around 10 mph really moisten our atmosphere. It could even feel slightly muggy! Clouds dominate, but high temperatures still get into the 60s. Let’s call it low-to-mid 60s for now. If we see more sunshine than currently expected we could top 70. Confidence: Medium

Sunday night: There’s a greater than 50 percent chance we see some showers overnight. Three is a cold front pushing across the area and it really could increase some breezes around midnight and after. Grab that windbreaker, especially if out late! Low temperatures dip sizably near dawn, toward the upper 30s to low 40s. Confidence: Low-medium

50s and generally sunny conditions may be featured for Monday and Tuesday. Other than a slight chance of breezes and early showers Monday — stay tuned — we could have clear sailing by afternoon and through Tuesday. Posssible we’ll need to tweak the high temperature forecast a bit, but 50s looks like the probable temperature regime overall. A cooler air push is slightly possible. Confidence: Low-medium

SNOW POTENTIAL INDEX
A daily assessment of the potential for at least one inch of snow in the next week, on a 0-10 scale.
1/10 (↓): We’ll keep snow chances barely alive as we keep an eye on mid-to-late next week …

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