The week ahead: dry, seasonable temperatures for the Folk Festival; rain Monday.

There’s only one kind of weather on tap for this year’s Folk Festival, and it’s grade “A” for “awesome.” Showers and thunderstorms on Monday threaten what what would be a 7-day streak of some gorgeous early fall weather.

October 12, 2012; 2:59 PM • by Weather Dan

The atmosphere is shaping up to give us some fantastic weather for this weekend and the Folk Festival. In fact, most of the next week is going to be near-average in terms of high temperature. Despite having nighttime low temperatures running 5-10 degrees cooler than average, most of the next week is going to be pleasant and enjoyable. The only black mark is going to be Monday. I can’t help but think Garfield would approve.

A dry cold front is going to swing east through the Virginias today; other than some increased cloudcover, I don’t think we’ll see any noticable effects from the front as it passes. Highs will run pretty close to 70 degrees today and get quite chilly tonight, with lows in the upper 30, and likely a few degrees cooler than that in the outlying areas. There haven’t been any advisories posted, but if winds die down enough, there may be some frost in those areas as well.

Highs are a few degrees cooler on Saturday as high pressure and a cooler air mass build in behind the front; highs only hit the mid 60s around Richmond. The warming trend begins again Saturday night, with lows only dipping into the mid 40s. On Sunday the heat returns, with highs near 75 and lows only near 60 Sunday night. Clouds will diminish during the day Saturday, but begin to return by Sunday night as the next cold front treks across the eastern US. This one won’t be quite so dry; in fact, it’s going to be the focus for some possible severe weather across the Great Plains and Ohio Valley on Saturday and Sunday. Despite that, we’re getting served a heaping plate of awesome weather for this year’s Folk Festival, and it’s hard to not get excited about that.

The front won’t make it into eastern Virginia until Monday afternoon, bringing with it a good chance for showers and thunderstorms. It’s hard to say exactly how much rain we’ll see at this point, and as with many events like this, not everyone will see the same amount of rain, if they see any at all.

Beyond Monday, cooler temperatures return – temporarily. We’ll start out with highs back in the mid 60s on Tuesday, and may get back into the low 70s by next Friday, and low temperatures will run in the mid 40s. Skies should remain partly to mostly sunny from Tuesday through Friday as well.

Aside from Monday, the next seven days are going to be completely fantastic. Get out and enjoy them while it’s still warm.

October 12, 2012 2:59 PM 0