BETHLEHEM, Pa. — Optimism reigns that much of Memorial Day weekend will be a lot more pleasant than forecasters first suspected.
“I’m going to be a lot more optimistic with this outlook than I would’ve been a few days ago,” EPAWA meteorologist Bobby Martrich said Wednesday.
Martrich said the weekend outlook should allow for plenty of outdoor gatherings, though the threat of showers and scattered storms will linger.
“Friday is fine. It’ll be partly to mostly sunny and should be another warm day,” Martrich said.
“Saturday I think is largely dry as well. A front is going to come through and stall to the south, so it’ll be warm but not as humid.
"It’ll try to push back north as a warm front, but we should see a mostly dry day."
Martrich said the chance of precipitation in the area is very low, noting many areas are likely to stay completely dry.
“We could get out of this with nothing at all. It’s possible, but I don’t want to pinpoint it,” he said, noting any showers that move through the region should be fairly weak and arrive late, if at all.
Warm temps, then rain
Martrich said Sunday looks like the best day of the weekend, with mostly sunny skies and highs in the 80s.
It’ll be Monday — the official Memorial Day holiday — that could be messy.
“That day is not going to be for outdoor activities,” Martrich said, noting models have “been pretty consistent” with the trend to wet weather, particularly in the afternoon.
“I don’t want to say it’s going to be a complete wash, but we should see scattered showers throughout the day.”
“I don’t want to say it’s going to be a complete wash, but we should see scattered showers throughout the day.”Bobby Martrich on Monday's weather
The good news?
“We’re pretty much beyond the ‘it’s raining and 55 degrees’ cycle we’ve been in,” Martrich said.
“For us to get this outlook for the holiday weekend comparatively speaking to what we’ve seen recently, it’s fairly decent.”
Across the region, some rain has fallen just about every weekend since April 6 and 7.
