Transition Day

The late-July-like sun through nearly clear skies and low humidity combined to bring a picture-perfect weather day to the Washington DC metro area. By 4pm, both major local airports had reached 77°, and dewpoints were all in the 40s. Dulles added another degree the following hour. Regional radar was bone-dry for hundreds of miles in all directions.

A vigorous upper-level low will be deepening and stalling over the Great Lakes, however, helping to bring rain to our area by tomorrow.

Surface weather map and satellite picture at 2pm today from HPC/NCEP/NWS

Tonight and Tomorrow

For tonight, skies will become overcast with lows around 58. Showers are likely by tomorrow morning with afternoon highs around 67. Showers and possible thunderstorms will extend into tomorrow evening.

Dan has the forecast for the rest of the week and weekend in his post immediately below.

Weather Wars

The lead story on Comedy Central's Daily Show Monday was "The Weather Game." It was about the ads being run by Terre Haute, Indiana, TV station WTWO attacking its local rival WTHI's weather coverage. With a viciously sneering tone that would be extreme even in today's slash and burn political campaigns, the ads touted the station's 45 years of combined experience vs. the competition's 30 years and blasted the opposition's "Doppler dead zone." The local TribStar newspaper quoted WTWO's manager saying he "didn't quite understand the point" of the Daily Show's story.

A video (requires Windoze Media 9) is available on the Daily Show web site, and the TV Squad has a synopsis of the complete program.