Historic Heat Halting

Now

Mostly sunny, record heat, humid. The Mid Atlantic region's historic October heat wave is being squeezed out from both the northeast and the west this afternoon, but not before new daily records were set at all 3 major airports. By 4pm, all local reporting locations had reached 90° or above. Although dewpoints are a little lower than yesterday, the humidity is still noticeable.

Unlike many recent days, regional radar shows some activity east of the mountains, but at mid afternoon it was limited to the Eastern Shore west of Ocean City, near the heads of the Chesapeake and Delaware Bays, and over the Blue Ridge south of I-66. At post time, a more extensive line of storms extends from central Pennsylvania southwestward across extreme western Maryland and into West Virginia.

Temperature chart at 3pm today from Unisys

Tonight and Tomorrow

Very warm, humid, chance of showers, then cooler. Warm and humid conditions will last through this evening with a 30% chance of showers or thunderstorms. Cooler and drier air will arrive by morning with lows in the low to mid 60s and some upper 50s to the west. Any remaining clouds tomorrow morning will give way to a mostly sunny day with decreasing humidity and highs 79-83°.

For the outlook through the rest of the week and into the weekend, scroll on down to Dan's post below.

Tropical Topics

The area of interest in the western Caribbean has not become any more organized today, and the tentatively scheduled reconnaissance flight was canceled.

Political Science

Chairman Edward J. Markey of the Select Committee on Energy Independence and Global Warming issued a statement in reaction to Sunday's WaPo op-ed piece by Bjorn Lomborg (see yesterday's update). For more background on Lomborg, see "Bjorn Lomborg feels a chill" (log in or watch the Visa ad) and a special edition of Grist Magazine at the time of his first book's publication. SourceWatch also provides an abundance of additional history and links. SciAm did an extensive critique by four specialists in 2002.