A cold Wednesday morning will yield a mild yet below-normal afternoon for the Garden State, with warmer temperatures and thunderstorms expected on Thursday.

Here are your weather headlines for Wednesday, April 6, 2016...

Winter Chill in April

We missed breaking any record low temperatures on Wednesday by just a few degrees. It has still been an unseasonably cold start to the day, with temperatures in the teens and 20s - that's about 15 degrees below normal. As I have been saying all week, these temperatures would be pleasant and reasonable in January. But for early April? No way! We want spring!

The marginally good news is that high temperatures for Wednesday afternoon (around 50 degrees) will be a bit warmer than on Tuesday afternoon (mid 40s). However, the normal high for April 6th at Newark, Trenton, and Atlantic City is 58 degrees. So we're still coming up shy, by about 5 to 10 degrees.

Skies will go from sunny to mostly cloudy as Wednesday presses on, with a somewhat gusty wind picking up during the afternoon hours (up to about 25 mph). A stray shower will be possible in North Jersey as a storm system just barely clips the Garden State.

Warm and Stormy

An impending warm front will bring some temporary relief to the chilly air. You'll definitely notice the difference for Wednesday night/Thursday morning, as lows only bottom out in the lower 40s - about 20 degrees warmer than Tuesday night/Wednesday morning.

And the warmer start will give way to a warmer finish for Thursday, with high temperatures forecast to reach the lower 60s for most of New Jersey. However, the warmth comes at a cost, with a round of showers and potentially strong thunderstorms expected as well. Some of those storms could be on the strong side, with torrential downpours, frequent lightning, and perhaps gusty winds. The most likely timing for this heavy rain looks to be Thursday late morning.

Another Cooldown

Sigh. Don't get used to Thursday's warmth, as a pair of cold fronts scheduled for late Thursday and for Friday will once again knock back temperatures by the weekend.

Friday's temperatures will be reasonable, with highs in the mid 50s - just shy of normal. I think winds will be breezy (not really windy or gusty), and we'll stay mostly dry (aside from a lingering morning shower).

The chilly air makes a big comeback for the weekend. High temperatures are expected to reach the 40s at best for both Saturday and Sunday. In addition, there will be a chance for rain or snow showers on Saturday morning - but this is a low confidence precipitation forecast for now.

I'm happy to report that New Jersey's long-range forecast shows above-normal temperatures by Tuesday next week.

Dan Zarrow is Chief Meteorologist for Townsquare Media New Jersey. Follow him on Facebook or Twitter for the latest forecast and realtime weather updates.

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