At some very basic level weather is nothing more than the atmosphere adjusting itself. Air gets removed from one spot, creating a low pressure system, and gets piled up in another location, making a high. Those pressure differences get the air moving from where it has piled up to where it has been removed, and the more extreme the difference the faster the wind will blow.
There is a huge pressure difference between a high pressure system centered over North Dakota and a deep low north of Maine this morning. That pressure gradient will give us gusty northwest winds from now until sometime tomorrow.
The cold front marking the leading edge of the high pressure system has already passed through the area, so today's expected high in the lower 60s has probably already been reached. It may stay warm for a few more hours, but the temperature is going to plunge into the lower 40s this evening and bottom out in the mid 30s, with wind chills well below that in the city Saturday morning. The near suburbs, and maybe parts of the Bronx, could fall below freezing overnight.
Saturday's high will be a brisk 50 degrees. As the high moves eastward the pressure gradient will weaken, the winds will die down, and warm weather will return. Sunday and Monday are expected to warm to the upper 50s under mostly sunny skies. Tuesday or Wednesday could be iffy with a coastal storm but the forecast models don't have a good handle on that system just yet.
