THE INTENSE HEAT HAS EASED BUT IT WILL STILL BE QUITE UNCOMFORTABLE FOR MOST OF US… SCATTERED SHOWERS AND THUNDERSTORMS ARE POSSIBLE THROUGH TUESDAY… THERE ARE TWO AREAS OF CONCERN IN THE TROPICAL ATLANTIC
The weather this weekend will be typical for this time of year. Warm and humid with a chance of scattered showers and thunderstorms mostly occurring in the afternoon and evening. This past week, there were some isolated storms in the region, but none of them moved through my VA Beach neighborhood. There were even some severe storms in parts of the region which caused some damage. I’m hoping that we get a nice downpour today so everything gets a good watering. The recent intense heat has depleted a lot of moisture from the ground. Temperatures are supposed to be more seasonal today, topping out in the upper eighties to around 90. The wind direction plays a major role in our region when it comes to temperatures. A southeast (onshore) wind can hold temperatures down. A wind with a more westerly component (offshore) can bring very hot temperatures as we saw earlier in the week.
When it is this humid, it doesn’t take much of a trigger to cause showers/storms to develop. A very weak frontal boundary remains over the region and this should be enough to trigger some convection each day this weekend. However, pinpointing what areas get the rain is nearly impossible. Disturbances in the upper-atmosphere also trigger storms.
As it looks right now, the chance of rain should lessen as we head into Wednesday and Thursday.
The tropical Atlantic is starting to come to life as we have two areas that are being watched by the National Hurricane Center. Both are very far out in the Atlantic so there is plenty of time to watch them. As I mentioned in previous posts, early to mid-August is normally the time of year when the tropical cyclone activity normally ramps up. The Cape Verde season also is set to begin in a few weeks. These are the long-tracked storms that develop in the Eastern North Atlantic. They have time to gain strength as they head westward across the Atlantic. However, sometimes a storm that develops closer to the U.S. can be just as much of a threat. You should make sure you are prepared for any threat from the tropics.
That’s it for now. Thanks for reading and have a great weekend!