Thursday, June 22, 2006

Air You Can Wear

Tonight and Tomorrow

Tonight will be warm and humid, with lows only in the mid 70s downtown, near 70 in the 'burbs. The chance of thunderstorms through this evening is 20%. Tomorrow will again be warm and humid, but more cloudiness will keep highs around 87. The chance of thunderstorms, especially in the late afternoon and evening, is 60%.

For the extended outlook, see Josh's post below.



The remnants of some storms which had deluged parts of Ohio yesterday moved through the Washington DC metro area this morning, limiting early temperature rises. The breakout of sunshine, however, has pushed the muggometer setting to "Sticky". The most oppressive readings are in the southern fringes of the region, where Fredericksburg and Stafford have reported heat indices over 100. Both of these stations, along with Culpeper, reported temperatures of 99° at 4pm.

On this anniversary of the drenching from the remnants of Agnes in 1972 (see Today in Weather History to the right), we finally have a chance over the next 5 days to put a serious dent in the area's precipitation deficit, especially if a possible tropical tap develops. Scroll down to Josh's earlier post for details.

A Finger in the Dike

The experience of New Orleans with Katrina has created greater awareness of the threat of flooding from tropical storms. Yesterday's WaPo had an article, "An 800-Pound Gorilla Waits to Escape in S. Florida", which described the risk of flooding from a breach of the dike around Lake Okeechobee in southern Florida. The dike, originally built in reaction to a devastating flood from a hurricane in 1928 which killed over 2000 people, has deteriorated according to a recent engineering study. The Palm Beach Post published an earlier special report on the subject, including a number of web extras and links to related stories.

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Seasonal Outlook

Latest seasonal forecast: Click here.


Latest 3-month temperature outlook from Climate Prediction Center/NWS/NOAA.