Friday, July 7, 2006

Nice and Dry Belie July

Tonight and Tomorrow

Very Fine: Another rare non-AC DC July night is on tap with mainly clear skies and low temperatures in the low 60s in town, down to the mid 50s in the outlying areas. Tomorrow will be sunny with comfortable humidity and highs around 84.

For the outlook through the rest of the weekend and some suggested activities, see Camden's post below.

Omnimedia

You probably missed it if your copy of the Thursday weekly section was from the wrong side of the Potomac, but a couple of site visitors noted that the WaPo yesterday featured the local National Weather Service forecast office in Sterling. One interesting statistic: the 150 flash flood warnings issued in 3 days late in June were more than twice the number issued for all of the year 2005.

CapitalWeather.com's own Jason Samenow will be appearing in a panel discussion Tuesday night next week at the Koshland Museum of the National Academy of Sciences. The topic is "Get the News: New Media", the roles of new and traditional media in science news reporting.

The climate-change documentary "An Inconvenient Truth" is appearing in 562 theaters as of this weekend; total gross revenue so far is $13.6M. The Al Gore interview with Jon Stewart on the Daily Show is available on iTunes.

Thursday, July 6, 2006

Improvement Continuing

Now

Decreasing humidity. Although the cold front which brought yesterday's rain moved through the area in the early morning hours, clouds behind the front were slow in clearing out. Nevertheless, temperatures this afternoon have rebounded to the upper 70s with decreasing humidity. National Airport bumped up to 80° at the 5:00 report.

Tonight and Tomorrow

Comfortable conditions. Skies will continue to clear tonight with very comfortable temperatures and low humidity. Temperatures in the low to mid 60s inside the Beltway could very well reach some mid 50s in the coolest 'burbs. Tomorrow will be sunny and dry with a few scattered clouds and highs in the low 80s.

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

Summer Storms Summary

Local utilities are still struggling to catch up with the damage caused by the most recent round of storms which dropped heavy rains on already saturated ground. The NWS precipitation analysis for the 24 hours ending at 8am today shows rainfall coverage throughout the local region, but there was a wide range of amounts. Within about a 50 mile radius of the District, amounts were as low as under 0.50" (blue) to over 3" (red-orange).

There were three distinct "stripes" of heavy rain (yellow/orange/red) running generally towards the east-northeast; the heaviest amounts were well south of the Washington metro area, from near Richmond across the lower Chesapeake Bay and into the Maryland and Virginia Eastern Shore.

Climate Corner (Continued)

Today's WaPo has an editorial on the subject of "Acid Oceans", which we mentioned yesterday. News articles on the ocean acidity study published yesterday have also appeared in:

Tropical Topics

The tropics remain quiet.

Wednesday, July 5, 2006

Rain Remains

A Severe Thunderstorm Watch and Flash Flood Watch remain in effect for the Washington/Baltimore region; a Flash Flood Warning is in effect for DC and adjacent Virginia until 7:30.

Now

Showers and thunderstorms are located ahead of a cold front slouching southward toward the Washington DC metro area from central Pennsylvania and northern West Virginia. So far this afternoon, storm activity locally has been focused on the District and areas to the south and east. While National had almost half an inch of rain by mid afternoon, Dulles had received only 0.01", and many areas outside the Beltway in MoCo had seen at most a trace. Conditions will remain ripe through this evening for showers and thunderstorms to develop and move eastward to northeastward through the region. Some rainfall amounts may be locally heavy.

Tonight and Tomorrow

Showers and thunderstorms are likely (70% chance) through tonight. Lows will be in the upper 60s to near 70. Tomorrow will see clearing skies, lower humidity, and high temperatures near 80.

For the outlook through the weekend, scroll down to Dan's post below.



Rain Records

Yesterday was the 50th anniversary of the world record 1-minute rainfall of 1.23" at nearby Unionville MD in 1956. The record lasted only 14 years; it was exceeded by the 1.5" which fell at Barot, Guadeloupe in 1970. The Australian Bureau of Meteorology has published a list of world extreme rainfalls through 1994, along with a comparison to Australian records. The National Academy of Sciences published a report analyzing the bounds on extreme precipitation events in 1994.

Climate Corner: Inconvenient Side Effects

Today's WaPo has a front-page article describing a joint NSF/NOAA/USGS report, "Impacts of Ocean Acidification on Coral Reefs and Other Marine Calcifiers", issued today on a serious side effect from the increase in CO2 in the oceans.

Seasonal Outlook

Latest seasonal forecast: Click here.


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