Synopsis: High pressure will dominate the weather across most of PA for the next 36 hours before some changes occur. By Friday afternoon a cold front will approach the NW and continue to move across the region Saturday. This will bring cooler temperatures into the region along with showers on Saturday. However, the bigger weather story could be from Hurricane Sandy, which could bring the potential for rain, snow, and gusty winds into our region by Sunday Night and Extend into next week.  

Short Term: (Thursday – Saturday) For Thursday and into much of the day Friday our weather will be dominated by high pressure. This will lead to temperatures in the 60's and 70's across much of the state under sunny skies. But by Friday afternoon clouds will slowly build from the west as the cold front approaches. This will set the stage for cooler conditions and rain showers for Saturday.  The NAM shows less than a ¼ inch of rain for regions east of State College, but the western third of the state could have heavier rains.

Long term: (Sunday – and behind) Saturday afternoon the front will slow and stall as Sandy begins to slowly make its way northward.  By Sunday the trough begins to become negatively tilted and deepen. The uncertainty exists whether Sandy phases with the trough and at what point this happens. The exact track could have big implications for what pans out. The 12Z European model paints the storm going right up the Delaware River with copious amount of rain and wind by 12Z Monday. This would also lead to heavy amounts of snow across the western mountains of PA.  On the other hand the 18z GFS takes Sandy out to Sea and develops another low along the coast of New England, this then retrogrades southward. This would produce some snows across the northern and western part of the state for Tuesday. There is still great uncertainty in the forecast being 4-5 days out, but the potential exist for a high impact weather event across the entire state of PA. So state tuned to the Campus weather service the next several days for updates.