After several days of cooler-than-normal weather, spring warmth is making its presence felt across Mississippi and will stretch into early next week.
High temperatures Friday afternoon topped out in the mid and upper 70s across much of the state after only reaching the 50s and low to mid-60s since Monday. Normal highs this time of year are typically in the upper 60s to around 70 degrees.
The National Weather Service (NWS) reported the high temperature in Jackson maxed out at 78 degrees, 10 degrees above its normal high this time of year of 68 degrees.
Other warm high temperatures Friday afternoon include 78 degrees in Columbus, Tupelo and Vicksburg, 76 degrees in McComb, Hattiesburg, Greenville and Meridian and 75 degrees in Greenwood.
This trend will carry over through the weekend as cool high pressure that was over the region, continues to shift to the east and as a cold front slowly makes its way toward the state, allowing warm and more moist air to surge into the state.
"As the surface high continues to shift east across the Gulf, warmer than normal temperatures will continue through the weekend. Very little change in the mass fields are expected through Saturday night allowing additional afternoon breezes to develop on Saturday," the NWS said.
Ahead of an approaching cold front, a strong surge of warm, moist air could yield widespread high temperatures in the low 80s by Monday. Overnight low temperatures are expected to average in the 50s.
This front will move through by early Tuesday with showers and thunderstorms, some of which could become severe, ushering in cooler temperatures back across the region.
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