The Bottom Line

The hot spot in New Jersey on Wednesday? Sicklerville in Camden County hit 60 degrees! What a magnificent burst of springlike weather. And even though cooler air is "leaking" into New Jersey on Thursday, we'll still manage a couple more days of bright, dry, relatively pleasant weather.

Our next storm system arrives this weekend. It looks wet, although not a washout. And the threat for wintry weather still looks very limited.

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Thursday

Our expected cooldown is running way behind schedule. As of this writing (5:45 a.m.), temperatures are in the 40s across the state. (My forecast called for lower-mid 30s.) It looks like thermometers will continue to slip downward, into the 30s for most of the state, through about 10 a.m. Then we'll bounce back and settle in the lower to mid 40s again Thursday afternoon. (Technically we already hit our "high temperature" for the day early Thursday morning.)

In other words, we've slid back into jacket weather territory, especially with the stiff northwest breeze through the morning hours.

Skies will be mostly sunny and our weather will be bone dry.

Under partly cloudy skies, Thursday night will be cold. Lows will sink into the mid to upper 20s — our first widespread freeze in a few nights.

Friday

More sunshine. More seasonably cool temperatures. Highs will reach the lower to mid 40s.

The daytime hours will be dry. Showers may bubble up from the south late Friday night (after Midnight).

Saturday

A series of 2 or 3 storm systems will ride through New Jersey over the weekend. The first on Saturday will bring periods of rain from morning through about mid-afternoon. The day won't be a washout — we'll catch pockets of dry weather along the way, especially into Saturday evening.

There is a chance that the initial few hours of precipitation early Saturday morning will come as snow for northwestern New Jersey only. There's even a chance we see a healthy coating of snow on the ground, before warming temperatures cause a flip to all rain.

High temperatures on Saturday will mainly reach the lower 50s. Nice and warm.

Total rainfall over the course of the weekend will probably be less than an inch — healthy, but not heavy. The combination of rain and well-above-freezing temperatures will contribute to a lot of snow melt. As we often discuss during late winter rainstorms, some ponding and flooding issues are possible as the meltwater and rainwater inundate potentially blocked storm drains.

Sunday

Another batch of rain is likely, from about midday Sunday through the afternoon. Again, not a washout, just generally wet.

With more of an on-shore wind, temperatures will struggle to reach that 50 degree mark Sunday. But upper 40s is still above-normal for the final day of February.

The Extended Forecast

There's a chance (no guarantee) that one more piece of rain passes through the Garden State early Monday morning. That's associated with a cold front, that will cause temperatures to tumble throughout the day Monday. 50 in the morning, but only 40 in the afternoon, with 40 mph wind gusts? That's blustery.

The forecast for the middle-to-late part of next week is still very muddled. Tuesday looks cold, with highs only in the 30s. And then one model (the European) shows a storm system visiting around the Wednesday time frame. I'm not expending too much time and/or energy on that piece of the forecast just yet. Let's just wait and see how things continue to evolve.

Dan Zarrow is Chief Meteorologist for Townsquare Media New Jersey. Follow him on Facebook or Twitter for the latest forecast and realtime weather updates.

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