The cold front has passed, but the clouds linger on this (Wednesday) morning. Forecasters promise the low deck of gray will begin to break up later today, and clear out overnight. We're already seeing some rays downtown at 11 a.m.

That will set us up for a terrific couple of days as high pressure builds into the region, sunshine does its job and temperatures climb into the 70s by Friday.

We got a fair amount of rain overnight. We're looking at 0.62 inch on the gauge here in The Sun's weather bunker, at Calvert and Centre streets. BWI-Marshall recorded 0.60 inch, bringing the month's total to about 4.3 inches. St. Mary's and Calvert counties and the Eastern Shore seem to have caught the heaviest rains. Here are some totals from the CoCoRaHS Network:

Leonardtown:  1.09 inches

Park Hall:  0.92 inch

Prince Frederick:  0.83 inch

Easton:  0.83 inch

White Marsh:  0.73 inch

Severna Park:  0.72 inch

Once the high pressure builds in and the skies clear, we'll all have a better outlook. And as the high begins to move offshore on Friday, we'll get into some west winds, and that will to push temperatures well above the seasonal averages.

The folks at WJZ are expecting a high of 77 degrees in Baltimore on Friday, according to their forecast this morning in our print editions. The National Weather Service is calling for 73 degrees at the airport. The average high at BWI for a March 18 is only 55 degrees. So we're looking at a maximum 20 degrees above the norm for the date. Sweet.  

The next cold front will pass through late Friday into Saturday. There's a small chance of some overnight rain with it. But the weekend still looks sunny, with highs near 60 degrees. And the nice weather is likely to continue into the beginning of next week - the first week of spring.

(SUN PHOTO: Jed Kirschbaum, March 24, 2009)