Maryland Weather: Cloudy & Warm, But Friday's An Alert Day

BALTIMORE (WJZ) -- There's no way around it: the forecast for Friday and our weekend looks dismal.

That's why we have declared an Alert Day on Friday, due to soaking rain, strong winds and the potential threat of severe weather.

Clouds will stick around overnight with lows in the mid-50s. While most of the night will be dry, a few showers will sneak into western Maryland by early Friday morning.

Rain coverage will steadily increase through the morning, and temperatures will climb into the low 60s through the afternoon, especially in areas that see rain arrive later.

Low pressure will track across northern Virginia into southern Maryland through Friday night. The track of this low is important because it will determine whether part of our area will see a severe weather threat. As it stands now, with the low tracking south of I-70, the greater threat for a strong storm or two will stay In southern Maryland and northern Virginia.

A track farther north closer to the Pennsylvania border would put more of our area into the warmer part of the storm and the threat for low-end severe storms will increase. At this point, we are leaning toward just a cold rain for the entire area all day Friday with occasional thunder for southern areas of the Eastern Shore by late afternoon.

It should be noted that some of the rain could be heavy at times, and this will lead to the potential for some minor flooding through the weekend in areas that see prolonged periods of heavy rainfall through Saturday night.

I expect between 1-3" of rain for most areas through this entire event lasting into Sunday morning. It will rain all night Friday, all day Saturday and all-night Saturday night.

Winds will increase out of the east-northeast late Friday through Saturday gusting over 20 miles per hour at times. The winds will become more northeast as developing low pressure moves off the Delmarva Peninsula on Saturday, bringing colder air into the region for Saturday.

It won't get out of the mid 50s Saturday and with a steady rain and a stiff northeast wind it will feel downright miserable being outside.

It gets colder Saturday night with low 40s expected. Highs on Mother's Day will not get out of the low 50s. On a positive note, the rain will leave by early afternoon but it will remain breezy through the day.

Expect improving weather early next week with sunshine returning Monday, but it will remain cool through Tuesday.