High temps continue through Friday before Sunday cooldown

Spring will continue to feel more like summer Thursday and Friday in southeast Michigan before cooler weather returns this weekend, according to the National Weather Service.

Temperatures are expected to hit a high of 83 Thursday, according to the weather service's Detroit office. While that likely won't break a record high of 87 degrees, which occurred in 1977, recent temperatures have been 20 to 25 degrees above normal, said Ian Lee, a meteorologist with the weather service.

But the warm weather won't last. A low-pressure system is expected to move through the region this weekend, cooling things down with increasing chances of precipitation Saturday night and Sunday. Temperatures will remain in the 70s on Saturday but fall between 60 and 64 degrees on Sunday.

Temperatures will plunge even further on Monday with a high expected to be in the 40s and a chance of wet snow showers, Lee said. The brief shot of cold air will be followed by temperatures in the 60s in the middle of next week, he added.

Michigan's last spring freeze usually happens between late April and early May, the NWS said in a tweet yesterday. Last year's latest spring freeze was on April 29 for most of southeast Michigan but the latest ever for Detroit was May 29, 1966.

Detroit's earliest last spring freeze happened on March 23 in 2017 and on average they occur on April 24, according to the weather service.

hmackay@detroitnews.com