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A weak cold front will move through overnight Sunday to Monday.  It will produce a few light snow showers and flurries overnight (between about midnight and 6am).  Accumulations will be 0 to 0.1 inches, mostly on grassy surfaces.  No travel impacts.  No delays or cancellations.  (But anytime we're talking about wintry precipitation, it's still officially boot weather.)

Clearing on Monday.  Becoming mostly sunny with a high of 56.  Monday 3/30 is MC Hammer's 53rd birthday.  And on March 30, 1964, Tracy Chapman (singer-songwriter best known for "Fast Car") and Ian Ziering (actor in "90210" and the Sharknado franchise, as well as a memorable turn as host of the all-too-brief reality dance competition, "Your Mama Don't Dance") were both born.  I cannot think of any cosmic significance to the fact that they were both born on the same day.  But it was information I felt you needed.

Tuesday, March 31st is the 88th birthday of William Daniels, who provided the voice of K.I.T.T. in a little series called "Knight Rider."  On the same day in 1927, Cesar Chavez (the great labor leader and civil rights activist) was born.  (He has since died, back in 1993.)  Again, I cannot peg the cosmic significance here.

Oh, and the weather on Tuesday: generally overcast with a few (rain) showers in the afternoon; high of 48.

Wednesday: sunny, seasonably gorgeous.  High of 53.

Thursday: partly sunny and quite mild (but a bit breezy) and a high of 94!  Wait, make that 64.  But still.

Friday: overcast, a few showers, still mild.  High of 66.  And it's the 70th birthday of Bernie Parent (pronounced "puh-RAHNT" - he's French Canadian).  For the uninitiated, Bernie was the best Flyers goaltender of all time.  Flyers, hockey.  Ice hockey.  A popular regional bumper sticker in his heyday read, "Only the Lord saves more than Bernie Parent."  See, when the goalie stops the puck, it's called a "save."  (The puck, no, not a urinal puck.  The thing they play with.  Well I don't know why it's called that!  Forget it.)  He led the Flyers to two consecutive Stanley Cups (championships) in the mid 1970s.

The weekend: a bit cooler (highs in the low to mid 50s) but sunny and really nice for the first weekend of April.

The following week looks rainy in general with highs fluctuating from the 50s-60s (Mon-Wed) to the 40s (Thu-Fri).

Thereafter, we here at the Monsoon Martin WeatherCenter see a warming trend: highs in the 60s and 70s throughout mid-April.

Enjoy your lives.

And stay tuned for updates!

Monsoon

Moses Malone (r), elated. Like, the happiest he's ever been, and that's his face.As of today - Sunday, 3/22/15 - there are 53 days of school remaining.  (Not that anyone is counting.)

Really cold tomorrow morning: down to 19.  Monday 3/23 will be sunny and breezy with highs around 40.  (It's also Moses Malone's 60th birthday.)

Haywood Nelson as Dwayne Nelson in the critically acclaimed comedy-drama, "What's Happening!!"Tuesday gets a little milder: high in the mid 40s with sunny skies and calm winds.  

Wednesday gets up to 50, but is mostly cloudy with a few showers in the afternoon and evening.  It's also Aretha Franklin's 73rd birthday.  She is the Queen of Soul.  When I was little, I would pronounce her first name as "Urethra" and then giggle madly.  Alright, I still do.

3/25 is also the 55th birthday of Haywood Nelson (Dwayne from "What's Happening!!").  Here is the entirety of my exclusive interview with Mr. Nelson:

Monsoon: What's happenin'?

Mr. Nelson: Hey HEY hey!

Monsoon: You are turning 55.  Do you enjoy getting older?

Mr. Nelson: Uh-UH!

Monsoon: I enjoyed you in the series "What's Happening!!"

Mr. Nelson: Hey HEY hey!

Monsoon: Good talk.

Mr. Nelson: Uh-UH!

Vicki Lawrence (l) with Tim Conway and Carol Burnett.Thursday is rainy and even a little humid with a high of 62!  Windy, too.  So that's a swing of 43 degrees between Monday morning and Thursday afternoon.  ("That's how you get sick," my Nana would say.  She would also say, "He doesn't know his ass from a hole in his ass," so it was a mixed bag with her.)

Birthdays on Thursday: James Caan (75), Bob Woodward (72), Diana Ross (71), Vicki Lawrence (66), Martin Short (65), and Keira Knightley (30).

Breezy, chilly, and variably cloudy on Friday with a high of 41.

Vince Vaughn as Wes Mantooth in Anchorman: The Legend of Ron Burgundy.Next weekend looks seasonably nice: high of 43 on Saturday, near 50 on Sunday.  Sunny and dry both days.  And Saturday is Vince Vaughn's 45th birthday.  And Kate Gosselin's 40th!  So Happy Birthday to the pride of Berks County!!  (Note: if someone knows her, please tell her that I would be delighted if she'd grant me a birthday interview.  Seriously!)

Getting up to 70 (!) by April 1st and 2nd.

Stay tuned for updates!

Monsoon

Winter Weather Advisories have been issued for the northern and western suburbs of Philadelphia as well as Berks and the Lehigh Valley.

I think even in the places where mostly snow falls (mixing only briefly with rain in the afternoon), we're going to get 2-3 inches at most.  (Estimates of up to six inches of accumulation are overstated, I think.)

Snow begins by 7 or 8am, continues on and off throughout the day, then drops off starting around 7 or 8pm (then ends by midnight).  I think the accumulations are mainly on grassy surfaces.  The roads will be a bit slippery initially (maybe up to about 10am), but then should just be slushy and/or wet.

Chance of delay Friday, 35.66%

Chance of cancellation Friday, 27.31%

Chance of early dismissal Friday, 11.94%

Wyatt Earp, age 47. He lived a hard life.It's the 167th birthday of Wyatt Earp, whose eclectic employement history includes stints as a pimp, mining speculator, boxing referee, sheriff, bouncer, shepherd, turnip farmer, and inventor of the iPad.  Remember the Gunfight at the OK Corral?  Back in the early 1880s?  That guy.  He died 86 years ago.

So then it still gets warmer on Saturday: high 40s to 50, so all the snow melts.

Stay tuned for updates!

Monsoon

So it's going to snow.

The vernal equinox at 6:45pm on Friday 3/20.  At that moment, spring begins.  And at that moment, it will be wet snowing / raining and it will be 34 degrees.  It is a cruel, prickish joke that Mother Nature is pulling.

Snow begins about 6 or 7am Friday, spreading into the area from the southwest.  Snow continues on and off until 3 or 4pm, when it mixes with rain.  Precipitation changes back to snow before ending round about midnight.

Accumulation: an inch or two, mostly slush on the roads; the bulk of the accumulation will be on the grass and whatnot.  The onset before dawn (when paved surfaces are at their coldest) could impact the morning commute.  The sun angle and surface temperature will generally prevent travel issues in the afternoon and evening.  We may see some slippery spots reemerge during the late evening.

A side note: it is kind of, really, awfully depressing to be talking about snow on March 18th.  *sigh*

Chance of delay Friday, 19%

Chance of cancellation Friday, 9%

Chance of early dismissal Friday, 37%

Saturday will start cold (32 degrees at dawn), but temperatures will rise rapidly: 40 by noon, 50 by 6pm.  So any snow that accumulates Friday will melt Saturday.

And then Sunday is windy and cold again, much like today (Wednesday 3/18).

Here's something, though.  Friday is Ovid's 2058th birthday.  (He died 1998 years ago, though.)  He wrote the Metamorphoses, which is a super-long poem that chronicles historical stuff and is known to have inspired Dante, Chaucer, Spenser, Shakespeare, and Stephenie Meyer.  In that work, he said, "Be patient and tough; one day this pain will be useful to you."  So that is profound.

Ovid, pensive.

Stay tuned for updates!

Monsoon

Hey there - just a brief forecast about the coming week.  Some of you have been hearing about the potential for wintry precipitation on Friday, so here's the straight dope.

Note: the origin of this phrase comes from betting on the ponies.  When stimulants had been given to racehorses (that is, they had been doped), gamblers wanted to know about it.  The term "straight dope" started as a phrase describing what had been given to those poor animals, then came to mean the (very salient) information itself.

But, as always, I digress.

David Hasselhoff has been cast in Sharknado 3, due out (on Syfy) this summer. It's apparently set in Washington, D.C. and features Mark Cuban (the outspoken billionaire Dallas Mavericks owner) as the President and Ann Coulter (the hatemongering right-wing pundit/columnist/she-devil) as the Vice President. Whatever. Hasselhoff!!!

Tuesday 3/17 begins with a few showers and overcast skies, reaching a high in the mid to upper 50s by early afternoon.  Then temperatures fall, winds kick up, and we get a few degrees below freezing by early Wednesday morning.

Wednesday looks windy and colder with highs only in the upper 30s.

Thursday is partly sunny and a bit milder with highs in the mid 40s.

Precipitation moves in late Thursday night into Friday.  Surface temperatures will be above freezing, but cold air in the upper atmosphere could bring us some wintry precipitation.  Right now I'd say we get mainly rain with a bit of wet snow (melting on surfaces) mixed in.  We'd really need snow to fall heavily to accumulate at this time of year, and this won't be heavy.  I think it's no big deal.

Chance of delay Friday, 17%

Chance of cancellation Friday, 3.75%

Saturday gets milder (high in the low 50s) but is breezy and overcast generally.  A few rain showers are possible overnight into Sunday.

Colder, then: highs in the 40s and lows around freezing on Sunday and Monday.  And Tuesday.

Stay tuned for updates!

Monsoon