Northeast Ohio weather: Rain returns for St. Patrick’s Day; turning cold for the weekend

CLEVELAND, Ohio (WOIO) - Talk about a beautiful Thursday!

Despite ample afternoon cloud cover, temperatures have soared into the 50s today.

With strong southerly winds (and rain) in the forecast tonight, temperatures will remain fairly mild through the night.

We’ll be in the 40s all evening.

Rain will move in after sunset, making for a very wet night.

Periods of rain will continue through the morning and into the early-afternoon hours of your Friday.

The steadiest rain will be in the morning.

By 1:00 p.m., rain will begin winding down from west to east.

There is growing optimism that the Downtown Cleveland St. Patrick’s Day Parade may actually be mainly dry.

However, a little rain cannot be ruled out at the start of the parade, and a few hit or miss showers or flurries may very well develop over the course of the parade.

Temperatures will quickly rise into the low 50s Friday morning before tumbling into the low 40s Friday afternoon.

Strong winds will make it feel as if it’s in the 30s Friday afternoon.

Behind the rain, it’s going to get cold! (Even for March.)

Temperatures will only climb into the low to mid 30s this weekend!

It will also be quite blustery this weekend.

On Saturday, wind chill temperatures will be in the teens all day.

By Sunday morning, wind chill temperatures will drop into the single digits!

Sunday afternoon, it will feel as if it’s in the 20s.

Lake effect snow showers will occur this weekend, especially late Saturday afternoon through Sunday morning.

Winds will push most of the lake effect into Ashtabula County initially, and then the prevailing winds will spread the lake effect across the Snow Belt Saturday night into Sunday morning.

Light accumulations will be possible where squalls persist.

Next week, the first week of astronomical Spring, will bring warmer temperatures and more sunshine.

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