Weather forecasts suggest showers and storms around Baltimore on Saturday afternoon, but they would be disorganized and scattered, making precise predictions for Preakness weather difficult.
A warm front is expected to pass through Friday, putting the region on the hot, humid side of the boundary, with moisture from the Gulf of Mexico flowing up from the south. That means an end to the cool, dry weather that moved in Wednesday and is expected to stick around until moving off the East Coast on Friday.
But the front is not expected to bring a squall line of intense storms, which would make it slightly easier to figure out if it might rain leading up to the 6:18 p.m. Preakness Stakes.
"We're thinking in the Baltimore area it's going to be pretty scattered," said Heather Sheffield, a meteorologist with the National Weather Service's Baltimore/Washington forecast office. "It might even be hit or miss."
Regardless of precipitation, it's forecast to be a hot, muggy day. High temperatures are forecast in the lower to mid-80s. Dew points are forecast in the lower to mid-60s, a level at which humidity begins to be perceptible to most people.