899
FXUS61 KCLE 131119
AFDCLE

Area Forecast Discussion
National Weather Service Cleveland OH
719 AM EDT Wed Aug 13 2025

.SYNOPSIS...
A cold front will move south across the area today followed by high
pressure building in behind it on Thursday. High pressure will
influence the local area through Saturday. A weak frontal boundary
will settle south towards the Eastern Great Lakes on Sunday.

&&

.NEAR TERM /THROUGH THURSDAY/...
Water vapor imagery shows a trough moving into the Central Great
Lakes Region this morning. Low pressure extends from James Bay to
southeast Michigan. Moisture has been advecting north within the
deep southwest flow ahead of the trough overnight with widespread
shower and thunderstorm activity across central and eastern portions
of the forecast area. While lightning will be on the down trend over
the next several hours as the better shortwave energy heads towards
Buffalo, expect to see rain linger across eastern portions of the
forecast area through the early morning hours. A break in
precipitation is likely by late morning into early afternoon before
showers and thunderstorms fill in along the southeastward moving
front this afternoon. Despite some lingering cloud cover, ML CAPE
values of 1000-1500 J/kg are likely by 18Z and the front should
support initiation somewhere along a line from Tiffin to Cleveland
before moving southeast through the afternoon. PW values will still
be above 1.75 inches this afternoon and storm motion will only be on
the order of 10-20 mph. Training along the front is possible and
heavy rain is expected with thunderstorms. All but NW Ohio remains
highlighted in a marginal risk for excessive rainfall and will need
to monitor the potential for localized flooding. The main window of
concern will be from 1 PM to 7 PM with activity ending from north to
south. The potential for an isolated shower or thunderstorm may
linger across western Lake Erie and into NW Ohio where the low level
flow is weaker and some surface convergence may persist into this
evening. Weak instability looks to hold over the western basin into
the evening.

High pressure strengthens over the Great Lakes on Thursday with
cooler and drier air pushing south into the local area. High
temperatures will drop back into the low 80s with a light north
wind. Dewpoints falling into the low to mid 60s will also provide a
break from the high humidity. Will hold onto a slight chance of a
thunderstorm closer to central Ohio but that should be isolated in
nature.

&&

.SHORT TERM /THURSDAY NIGHT THROUGH SATURDAY/...
Thursday night is on track to be the coolest night of the week with
lows ranging from the mid 50s in NW Pennsylvania to near 60 degrees
in Ohio.

While some shortwave energy crosses the Central Great Lakes on
Friday, the overall trend is for the ridge to build aloft. The trend
through the short term will be for dry conditions and warming
temperatures. A warm front lifts back north of the area on Friday
night with temperatures on Saturday ranging from the upper 80s to low
90s again.

&&

.LONG TERM /SATURDAY NIGHT THROUGH TUESDAY/...
The long term starts with a ridge extending north to the Upper
Midwest with 500mb heights of 591 dm over southern Lake Michigan. A
fairly strong shortwave trough looks to round the ridge and cross
the eastern Great Lakes which may push a frontal boundary south into
the area on Sunday. Models are starting to come into better
agreement with this feature and have lowered highs across the
northeastern portion of the forecast area. If the frontal boundary
is in the vicinity on Sunday then there could be a chance of
thunderstorms but coverage may be limited by the warm air already in
the mid-levels of the atmosphere. The ridge will tend to expand
eastward on Monday before another shortwave rounds the ridge again
on Tuesday. This may result in an oscillating front in the vicinity
and placement will influence temperatures. Timing and evolution of
these features will need to be monitored in the later periods
and will hold onto a low 20-30 pop in the forecast.

&&

.AVIATION /12Z Wednesday THROUGH Sunday/...
A lull in showers/storms is expected this morning before
additional showers and thunderstorms develop along a cold front
that will begin to move southeast across the area this afternoon
into early this evening. The best chance of showers and
storms will be at KMFD/KCAK/KYNG and have showers with VCTS in
addition to TEMPOs for non-VFR conditions in thunderstorms for a
few hours. Confidence is lower at KFDY/KCLE/ERI so have only
included a PROB30 group for the same general timeframe.
Currently thinking that showers and storms will fire to the
southeast of KTOL. There`s still quite a bit of uncertainty in
the coverage of showers/storms so amendments will likely be
needed as confidence increase over the next several hours.

VFR is largely expected outside of thunderstorms through at
least this evening and patchy fog may develop at inland
terminals late tonight/early Thursday morning. The best chance
of non-VFR conditions in fog is at KYNG, however fog may be
added to other terminals in subsequent updates.

Light south/southwest winds this morning will become
northwesterly and increase to 5 to 10 knots this afternoon into
this evening. Light northeast winds are expected by late tonight
with sustained winds of 5 to 10 knots more likely along the
lakeshore overnight.

Outlook...Non-VFR possible in isolated to scattered showers and
thunderstorms Sunday afternoon.

&&

.MARINE...
A cold front will cross the lake today through tonight. Winds
ahead of the front will be out of the southwest at around 5 to
10 knots before becoming northwesterly behind the front this
evening and northeasterly early Thursday morning. Winds will
likely increase to 10 to 15 knots for a period Thursday morning.
Northeast winds 10 knots or less are expected Thursday afternoon
through Friday before shifting to the southeast Friday night
through Saturday. A lake breeze is likely during the afternoon
Friday and Saturday which will result in a period of onshore
flow in nearshore zones. Flow will become southwesterly and
then northwesterly as a cold front moves across the lake late
Saturday into Sunday.

Winds and waves may be higher in showers/thunderstorms that
develop over the lake through this afternoon. Conditions are
favorable for waterspouts with the cold front today into
tonight.

&&

.CLE WATCHES/WARNINGS/ADVISORIES...
OH...None.
PA...None.
MARINE...None.

&&

$$

SYNOPSIS...10
NEAR TERM...10
SHORT TERM...10
LONG TERM...10
AVIATION...15
MARINE...15