NEXT Weather Alert for damaging winds, heavy rain Sunday night after Philadelphia's St. Patrick's Day parade

By Andrew Kozak, Grant Gilmore

Updated on: March 16, 2025 / 10:28 AM EDT / CBS Philadelphia

After a foggy start early Sunday morning a warm front has pushed north of the region clearing the fog and ushering in warm southerly wind that will increase through the afternoon.

It looks like Philadelphia’s St. Patrick’s Day Parade will stay dry, but expect winds to kick up into the mid-afternoon hours with a few gusts to 40 mph. West of the area a cold front is producing showers and storms that will eventually move into our area later on this evening. While this system has slowed down a bit, and even weakened a bit for our area, it’s still packing quite a punch.

St. Patrick’s Day Parade forecast CBS Philadelphia

Numerous confirmed tornadoes have been reported just in the last 24 hours, along with flash flooding reports and wind damage. Nearly 300 Tornado Warnings have been issued since Friday. The worst of it occurred over the mid-South and deep South, with the main area of the tornado threat moving east for today. This will include areas like Virginia and the Carolinas, all the way down to the panhandle of Florida.

The Storm Prediction Center has the majority of our area in the “General Thunderstorms” category, with some of our western counties still in the “Marginal” (1 out of 5) risk.

Severe storm risk for Sunday, March 16 CBS Philadelphia

Temperatures will gradually warm through the 60s Sunday morning despite overcast skies and increasingly windy conditions. Highs Sunday afternoon will be in the upper 60s to near 70 degrees.

Wind advisory CBS Philadelphia

The National Weather Service has issued a Wind Advisory for the entire area until 9 p.m., with wind gusts now forecast to reach between 40-50 mph.

Sunday storm timing

Here’s the set-up for the day: the first half of Sunday will only have a few stray showers before a strong line of storms approaches out ahead of a cold front into Sunday evening.

NEXT Weather Alert Day forecast CBS Philadelphia

This line of storms will bring areas of heavy rain and embedded strong and potentially damaging wind gusts. This line of storms will arrive in the Reading and Allentown area between 7-10 p.m. and then track east into the Philadelphia area by 9 p.m.-midnight. The leaded edge of the storms will move across South Jersey toward the shore into the first half of the overnight.

Futurecast for Sunday at 9 p.m. CBS Philadelphia

The NEXT Weather Team will have frequent updates online, on-air and on our digital stream to help you to plan and stay protected.

Looking ahead to the week

Monday, St. Patrick’s Day will start with some green (rain) on the radar before slowly clearing out through midday. The rain and clouds will gradually clear for the afternoon with temperatures near 60 degrees.

The warmth will return through the middle of next week with highs in the mid-upper 60s Tuesday and then around 70 degrees Wednesday. The next chance of rain will arrive with the first day of spring on Thursday as a cold front ushers in another drop in temperatures for next Friday. Temperatures will go from the upper 60s Thursday afternoon to only around 50 degrees Friday afternoon.