Friday, August 5, 2011

    Weak high pressure relinquishes control over our region today. Warm air & lots of moisture will lift north into our area later today. Hot and humid forecast continues through the weekend. Good chance for rain & thunder into the first part of next week as well.

    Widespread haze persists this morning. Satellite imagery shows thicker cloud cover already infiltrating the eastern mountains & Eastern Panhandle. Dew points will be on the increase today as that warm air & deeper moisture mixes in. The cloud cover should limit daytime heating. Highs will be in the mid to upper 80s today. But more warm air advecting & higher humidity will put heat indices in the mid to upper 90s, making things more uncomfortable as the day progresses.

    So the forecast will stay muggy with increasing afternoon cloud cover. We're also watching a weakening upper air disturbance that will cross the Ohio Valley, reaching the Appalachians this evening & tonight. We may see some showers and thunderstorms develop this evening, mainly across northern portions of our state as that system sweeps eastward. Any storms that do pop could produce heavy downpours tonight. But that would be welcome-anything to break the heat...

    Expecting things to stay muggy overnight with lows around 70 under mostly cloudy skies.

    For Saturday...cloudy skies will keep the heat from becoming ridiculous. Even without the sunshine, we'll still have plenty of warm air to deal with during the day. Highs will be in the mid 80s, dew points will still be in the low 70s. The thinking is that thunderstorm activity will be limited Saturday due to limited solar radiation during the day. But we'll keep the chance for a good dose of rain Saturday & Saturday night.

    A weak cool front will cross our area Sunday. So we'll keep the chance for scattered rain and thunder Sunday & Sunday night. Highs will be in the mid to upper 80s, lows will fall to around 70. Leftover moisture will linger into Monday. So the forecast will stay partly to mostly cloudy. High pressure will return to dry things out late Monday into Tuesday...More wet weather arrives Wednesday/Thursday.

    In other weather news...Tropical Storm Emily seems to have lost her identity somewhere in the Bahamas. The National Hurricane Center is still anticipating some restrengthening in the next 24-36 hours. Forecasters still expect Emily to take a northwest course, come within a few hundred miles of the Florida coast, then race northeast before dissipating in the middle of the Atlantic Ocean. Emily still posses little threat to the US mainland.

    Geomagnetic storms associated with the Sun's solar winds are expected to reach "strong" level in the next 24 hours. This means that minor disruptions are possible. Intermittent satellite navigation & radio problems may occur. Other minor disruptions would include false alarms being triggered on some electrical power protection systems. In the past, aurora borealis has also been observed as far south as 50 degrees latitude. That means that folks as far south as Oregon, Montana, Illinois etc could potentially see aurora.