NJ to enjoy 36 hours of nice weather, then 36 hours of cold

The Garden State continues to ride the roller coaster of autumn, and threes some chilly air on the horizon for the weekend.

Wednesday turned into quite the grey, damp day for New Jersey. Our highest rain totals fell in the quarter-inch to half-inch range. As I've said in previous weather blog posts, it wasn't a drought-buster by any means.

The rain is done, and we've thoroughly dried out. Skies continue to clear on this Thursday morning, and that's led to some expectedly chilly temperatures in the upper 30s. Thursday will be a pretty nice day by mid-November standards, with a mix of sun and clouds and high temperatures in the mid to upper 50s.

No weather problems are anticipated for Thursday night either. Look for mostly clear skies and cool temperatures, bottoming out in the lower to mid 40s.

Friday will start off just fine, with mostly sunny skies and temperatures peaking near 60 degrees by Friday lunchtime. However, our next cold front approaches. (Cue sinister music.) Sometime Friday afternoon, the arrival of this cooler air mass will be marked by a sharp increase in northwest winds. Gusts to 35 mph are possible.

That fierce wind will carry much colder air on top of New Jersey, and you'll really start to feel it Saturday morning. Lows will fall to the upper 20s to lower 30s across the state - a widespread freeze is likely for all but the Jersey Shore. Although the wind will calm, high temperatures on Saturday will only reach the upper 40s to around 50 degrees. That's in the neighborhood of 10 degrees below normal for this time of year. At least we'll enjoy bright, sunny skies.

Temperatures will moderate a bit on Sunday, with thermometers bumping into the mid to upper 50s. Again, the day looks dry and mostly sunny to close out the weekend.

And it's a quiet weather picture for early next week too. Our current forecast calls for partly cloudy skies, dry weather, and seasonable temperatures in the upper 50s for Monday, Tuesday, and probably Wednesday.

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