7:00 AM | Very warm and humid through Thursday with strong storms possible on Thursday; cool weekend shaping up
Paul Dorian
6-Day Forecast
Today
Partly sunny, becoming very warm and humid, while most of the day will be rain-free there is the chance for an afternoon shower or thunderstorm, highs in the low-to-mid 80’s
Tonight
Mostly cloudy, mild, chance for showers and thunderstorms, mid 60’s
Wednesday
Mostly cloudy, very warm and humid, chance for showers and thunderstorms, mid 80’s
Wednesday Night
Mostly cloudy, mild, chance for showers and thunderstorms, mid-to-upper 60’s
Thursday
Mostly cloudy, warm and humid, showers and thunderstorms likely and some of the storms can be strong-to-severe, upper 70's
Friday
Partly sunny, cooler, chance for morning showers, near 70
Saturday
Partly sunny, cool, near 70
Sunday
Partly sunny, cool, near 70
Discussion
A taste of summer will occur in the Mid-Atlantic region today, tomorrow and Thursday as temperatures will climb well up into the 80’s in many locations and humidity levels will become more reminiscent of the summertime. One of the main ingredients necessary for severe weather to occur in the central and eastern US is moisture-laden air from the Gulf of Mexico and that has been largely missing from this part of the country during the spring until the last several days. In fact, dew points on Monday climbed well up into the 60’s in the Mid-Atlantic region and they will hold at those rather high levels from today through Thursday. At the same time, a strong upper level feature will slide slowly eastward to the eastern states during the next few days and this combination of humid air with strong upper level support will generate severe weather today from the southern Plains to the Upper Midwest, in the Ohio Valley on Wednesday, and then perhaps in the Mid-Atlantic region later Thursday. A strong surface cold front will approach the east coast late Thursday and this will likely spark the formation of strong-to-severe thunderstorms from the Carolinas to New England.
Once the cold front passes off the east coast on Friday, strong Canadian high pressure will build into the Mid-Atlantic region and, similar to many previous springtime scenarios, colder-than-normal air will spread to the east with this high pressure system. As a result, it does not look like a warm "beach-type" weekend for coastal locations in the Mid-Atlantic and Northeast, and frost is not out of the question for some interior, higher elevation locations of the Northeast US. Generally cool and dry weather is likely to continue into the latter part of the Memorial Day weekend.
Video
httpv://youtu.be/cU7GdZBRwBU