Weather! More hot weather, little relief in sight

We actually set not one, not two, but three(!) temperature records between Wednesday night and Thursday. Wednesday night’s low of 76 broke the old record warm minimum temperature of 74, set in 1996. Thursday’s high of 102 broke the old record of 100 degrees, set in 1948. Overnight Thursday night, we set another record warm […]

June 25, 2010; 11:28 AM • by Weather Dan

We actually set not one, not two, but three(!) temperature records between Wednesday night and Thursday. Wednesday night’s low of 76 broke the old record warm minimum temperature of 74, set in 1996. Thursday’s high of 102 broke the old record of 100 degrees, set in 1948. Overnight Thursday night, we set another record warm minimum of 78, breaking the record of 74 set in 1909. That’s right, we only got to 78 last night. There’s a little bit of relief for this weekend, but we’ll be back to near-record heat by Sunday.

In the tropics, Invest 93L is currently an area of thunderstorms off the coast of Honduras in the Caribbean Sea. It has begun organizing in the last 12 hours, and the National Hurricane Center gives it a 70% chance for development in the next 48 hours. Forecast models still vary greatly in terms of intensity, but most of them have the system tracking across the Yucatan Peninsula and into the Gulf of Mexico. It’s still too early to tell exactly what’s going to happen with this system, but it certainly bears watching, especially as it approaches the Gulf and the activity around the Deepwater Horizon location.

For this weekend, the heat doesn’t break much. A cold front approaches the area Friday, though honestly, its a bit of a misnomer. There’s not much cold air behind this boundary. Temperatures are a bit more balmy for Friday, sticking to the low 90s. Hot and humid is still the story, but we get a slight break from the 100-degree temperatures of Thursday. There’s a small chance of afternoon showers and thunderstorms, and overnight temperatures will fall into the low 70s.

The cold front turns around and returns through the area as a warm front on Saturday, turning the setting on the RVA oven back to London broil. Saturday highs climb into the mid 90s, falling into the mid 70s overnight. Some relatively stable air behind the warm front means that the threat for any sort of precipitation is even smaller.

Sunday sees temperatures climb back into the upper 90s, bordering on 100 yet again. Overnight lows fall into the mid 70s. The heat and humidity, combined with more unstable air, make for another threat of isolated storms on Sunday.

It’s going to be a hot weekend – enjoy it! Before you know it, we’ll be under two feet of snow again. I’m not ready for that yet, are you? I’ll have another full update, including a continued look at the tropics, on Monday.

June 25, 2010 11:28 AM 3