Weather

The vast majority of the eastern and northern United States can expect dry weather Saturday. In the Upper Midwest and Northeast, this will be part of a sequence of sunny days, which the regions have not experienced in many weeks. After a cold morning, the afternoon should feel mild to most people in the late-April sun, with light winds. An area of high pressure is forecast to crawl from the lower Great Lakes to the central Appalachians. Exceptions to the dry weather will be the Florida Peninsula, where spotty showers are forecast. In the Northwest, low-elevation rain showers and mountain snow showers are projected across Washington, northern Idaho and northwestern Montana.

Sunshine is also in store for the Southwest states. High pressure is forecast to build at most levels of the atmosphere and will enforce the dry weather. A hot afternoon is in store for the deserts of California, Nevada and Arizona.

Meanwhile, a storm will bring rain to areas of the central and southern Plains. For some locations, this will be the most substantial rainfall since last autumn. The rainfall should aid in firefighting efforts but may do little to alleviate the long-term drought. Thunderstorms are forecast from central and eastern Texas to southeastern Oklahoma.

FOCUS: Rain to Spread Up the East Coast

The storm moving into the Southeast on Monday is expected to travel to the East Coast on Tuesday into Wednesday. This will result in rain in the Mid-Atlantic region on Tuesday and in New York and New England into Wednesday.