Department of Meteorology and Atmospheric Science at Penn State.

This is Weather World.

Good evening and welcome to Weather World.

It's Friday, March 27th, 2026.

I'm Caitlin Clark, joined by Ben Ruppert and Ben.

The temperatures have been frankly all over the place and the end is not in sight.

No, we've been on this really wild roller coaster, some record warmth in parts of the state yesterday, feeling more like winter for many today and eventually over the weekend.

We're heading right back up the other way again, and we'll get way more details on that in Ben's short range forecast on the show tonight.

Also on the show, we'll have week two trends and the extended forecast.

But first, Ben has the short range.

Thanks very much, Caitlin.

And yes, continuing the theme of the weather roller coaster.

Even this morning, if you woke up at 6:00 this morning, it was already below freezing in northwestern Pennsylvania.

Meanwhile, still 63 in Philadelphia and basically everything else in between.

But a strong cold front was continuing to march its way through.

And as it did, most areas saw temperatures dropping.

Today we did recover a bit north and west where it started.

So chilly, but this afternoon feeling much different compared to yesterday at this time.

In fact, on the order of 25 to 40 degrees colder depending on your location pretty much region wide, we will be chilly once again heading into the first part of the weekend on Saturday, and then temperatures will actually quickly recover for the second half of the weekend.

So if you haven't been ready to say goodbye to winter, enjoy tonight and tomorrow.

If you're longing for more spring like weather, you will be looking ahead to Sunday.

As that front was coming through, it had some showers, downpours, even some rumbles of thunder associated with it.

Here are the rain totals from the last 24 hours.

Anywhere in this purple color.

That's at least an inch and a half of rain.

Some localized areas near the Pittsburgh Metro picking up over two inches.

The blues denote anywhere from about a half of an inch to an inch and a half of rain, which Filippo advertised on last night's show, and that verified just about everywhere far southeast Pennsylvania, picking up less than a half of an inch of rain as the showers and rumbles of thunder dwindled.

By the time they made it to I-95.

Any leftover remnants of that front are now exiting to our south.

Most of the shower activity has been south for most of the day, still hanging on to some of the Cloud Shield in far southeastern Pennsylvania, but most of northwestern PA has broken out into some sunshine this afternoon and Saturday will be bright again for a lot of us.

Sunday we will bring the clouds back despite it being on the milder side.

So a bit of a half and half weekend on the way.

In addition to the chillier changes today, we also have a northerly wind blowing generally about 10 to 15mph, putting an additional chill in the air.

In fact, wind chills in much of northern Pennsylvania have been in the teens and 20s most of the day, so certainly feeling more like winter.

That northerly flow is bringing in that colder air regime from the north.

An area of high pressure is sitting off to our west, and once it scoots to our east for the second half of the weekend, our wind will turn out of the south and eventually the 50s and 60s will be returning here.

But we do have one more chilly day on the way.

Still, here's how it looks on the surface map tonight.

The front that came through last night into this morning is now comfortably to our south.

High pressure is well to the west.

This will be building in over the next 24 hours until it gets here.

We're in the pressure gradient.

That means breezy conditions tonight into the day.

Tomorrow.

Tomorrow night the high pressure will settle overhead and with some clear skies and winds that will be diminishing, that will set the stage for a very chilly start to Sunday once again.

Then, as this high scoots off to the east, we call this a chameleon high.

It starts cool, starts one color and then ends up another as it moves off to the east.

Southwesterly flow takes over fairly quickly on Sunday.

That will bring in more clouds, but it will also bring the warmth back.

So as I mentioned, if you don't want the chilly day on Saturday, you don't have to wait for long.

Sunday will be much milder tonight, far from mild.

We'll call it a freeze for all teens in the coldest spots of the north and west 20s for most of us, and freezing in Philadelphia.

But with that northwesterly wind continuing to blow, it will feel several degrees colder than what these values will show on the thermometer heading into the day on Saturday.

Generally bright, especially along and south of Interstate 80, north of Interstate 80, some clouds will bubble up, especially from about lunchtime onward.

That will keep highs there in the 30s for the rest of us, generally mid to upper 40s, but this is still about 5 to 10 degrees below average for late March.

Also, with the wind blowing and low relative humidities, I would not recommend any outdoor burning during the day on Saturday either.

Sunday a different day, much milder, even though the clouds will tend to win out over the sunshine.

Fairly seasonable for this time of the year, although we will start the day subfreezing everywhere, ending up in the 50s to low 60s.

We will have the extended forecast in just a moment.

We turn the calendar to April during this extended forecast period.

And right on cue, some April showers.

We're also going to continue the roller coaster ride of temperatures, but I don't think we're going to see much in the way of below average temperatures during this period.

And speaking of temperatures, we've had record warmth across the west and central US over the past week or so, and that is because of this big ridge of high pressure that has just dominated that region.

By the time we get to Monday, you'll see that the ridge has pushed a little bit farther to the east.

So I think the early part of next week, South, the south central U.S.

and southeastern U.S.

have the best chance of having not only above average temperatures, but the chance for some record highs while you see the West finally cooling down a little bit.

We are going to start the week with temperatures moderating.

We're going to be warming up.

And as we go into the middle of the week, you can see the southwesterly flow aloft that's going to usher in much warmer air.

But then things change.

You can see this little dip in the jet stream here on Tuesday.

It's going to push through on Wednesday, bringing with it the chance for some showers and thunderstorms.

That moves out and then things change.

I'll show you that in a second.

When we look at surface features notice by Friday we still have southwesterly flow aloft.

So I don't think even behind that front it's going to get too cold.

Now we're going to take things down to the surface.

We have our lines of equal pressure here.

These are isobars.

This is an area of low pressure.

Well to our north on Monday you can see southerly flow starting to push into the eastern U.S.

the colors here denote how much moisture is available in a column of air from the surface up to cloud level.

The more the darker you see the color, the more moisture there is available.

So think on Monday, just a chance for a few showers.

Most places remain dry.

Continue to see that southerly flow on Tuesday.

Another chance for some showers as a warm front moves through the region.

Here's another area of low pressure that is going to be to our north on Tuesday.

By Wednesday, the trailing cold front from this is going to push through Pennsylvania, bringing with it a chance for some showers and thunderstorms.

And then behind it see this northwesterly flow that's going to cool things off and dry things out a little bit for Thursday.

The fly in the ointment for the end of the week is where this area of high pressure to our north sets up.

We may see some easterly flow across Pennsylvania Thursday and Friday.

If that happens, we tend to see more in the way of cloud cover, low, low level clouds.

It's going to be a little bit on the cooler side.

Call that cold air damming.

The cold air gets wedged up against the mountains, whereas in western Pennsylvania, we actually may end up seeing some south southerly flow and that could warm things up.

So by the end of next week, there could be a big temperature difference between the West and the east.

So that's something we need to keep an eye on.

And so we're going to say high uncertainty for the end of next week.

But I do think it's going to be more clouds than sun as we go into the week, starting off with temperatures slightly above average by the middle of the week, going well above average as those breezy southwesterly winds kick in.

A few showers Monday and Tuesday, then a chance as that cold front moves in for more widespread showers and storms on Wednesday, and then high uncertainty on Thursday and Friday.

However, temperatures not going much below average.

How's the week to period?

John has that coming up next.

In week two trends, we go beyond the extended forecast into the 8 to 14 day period, which will begin next Saturday and end and finish two weeks from today.

Legendary Weather World alum Fred Gadomski used to call this the misty, distant future.

And in this case, I will certainly agree with the Misty as some of the uncertainty at the end of the extended forecast will continue into the week two period, we are going to try to assess the the risk or our confidence in temperatures being above or below average.

These will be the averages in the middle of that 8 to 14 day period.

These are rocketing skyward as we are at the time of year when the sun is rapidly getting higher in the sky.

And so some of these numbers have gone up four degrees from last week on average.

All of these are three three degrees higher than they were last week when we showed them to you.

Keep these numbers in mind as a benchmark, as we assess the risk of temperatures being above or below average, we're going to show you forecasts.

These are up around 20,000ft, which kind of controls the movement of surface systems.

These are pressure lines.

The wind tends to follow these lines from west to east where they dip to the south.

We call these troughs.

They generally sponsor cooler than average weather and often stormier than average weather to their east, and where they bulge to the north.

We call those ridges.

They tend to bring at least at high altitudes, above average temperatures and fair weather.

We can see the dip that's bringing in the cooler air mass for the weekend that will head out to sea by the time we get to the middle of next week, and we'll start to get into more of a southwesterly flow.

By the beginning of my forecast period, the main player is going to be this dip you see out over the midsection of the country.

The models are really differing on where this dip in the flow is, and there will be a storm to its east, which will have rain with it.

Whether that goes through next Saturday, next Sunday, that's up in the air.

But I do think we'll get with that southwesterly flow at least one day above average next weekend, and then that disturbance will go through.

And by that time the lines are really starting to separate.

So I'm just going to average all of the solutions together.

Here are the blues and purples indicate cooler than average air at high altitudes and the amber colors warmer than average.

And I think once that system goes by, there will probably be at least a day when temperatures go below average at the beginning of the week two period.

But then everything moves very quickly here.

Even in this average version, everything moves quick West to east.

It's spring.

That's typical for spring weather systems quickly move from west to east and timing them is very challenging at this end.

So one point I would like to make and I make this in our statements there at the bottom it's spring and the pattern will remain spring like.

By that I mean changeable.

Probably one day next weekend, Easter weekend, warmer than average and an enhanced risk of getting some rain either Saturday or Sunday.

That goes by.

Things turn cooler briefly, but then eventually they warm up.

But the timing on where I place the cool in the mild, and I'm just not sure of the timing at all.

Once we get beyond next weekend for any weather systems, but I do think there will likely be at least one more chance of getting some rain.

That's it for week two.

Back in a moment with more.

While John openly admitted there he has no idea about precipitation timing.

Two weeks from now, I can pretty much ensure it is a dry weekend for Pennsylvania, but it starts chilly.

In fact, all of us will be at or below freezing overnight tonight.

20 for most around freezing in Philadelphia, but some teens in the high ground to the north and west and with a chilly breeze blowing, shave a few degrees off of those values for what it will actually feel like overnight tonight.

Chilly start to Saturday and a chilly finish as well.

Generally speaking, about ten degrees below average in most locations.

Some clouds will be around in the afternoon along and north of I-80, so it will feel chilly.

Some brightening in southern Pennsylvania will take the edge off, but even 40s there, with a breeze blowing, will feel more like winter than certainly what we felt the last few days.

Also a bad day for burning with some drying fuels, low humidity and that gusty breeze.

Sunday.

The breeze turns southwesterly combined with at least some sunshine that will boost temperatures back into the 50s.

Even some low 60s out there again still dry, although Sunday the sun will be dimmed behind a lot of high clouds.

A bit of a half and half weekend though.

If you like the chill, enjoy Saturday.

You want the mild weather back?

Enjoy Sunday.

Like John said, it's spring.

It's spring.

Well, thank you for joining us on the show tonight.

Be sure to join us next week for a feature on AI and weather forecasting.

We'll have a good weekend.