Awfully Arid August

Now

Hot but dry. A bright August sun pushed the temperature to 91° by 3pm this afternoon. The humidity is only slightly higher than yesterday with dewpoints hovering near 60°. A strong thunderstorm developed along the coast near Ocean City, but otherwise regional radar is dry.

Tonight and Tomorrow

Mostly dry. A stationary front hanging around the Mason-Dixon line could help spark a few scattered thunderstorms this evening; otherwise, lows will be near 70 in the city to the mid 60s in the 'burbs under partly cloudy skies. Tomorrow will be sunny with highs near 90° and moderate humidity.

Scroll down to Josh's post below for the outlook through the weekend and Larson's Long-Range.

Tropical Topics

Debby continues to be an underachiever with maximum winds of 50 mph through today and little change expected in the near future. The forecast track keeps it away from land.

The tropical wave near the Windward Islands has developed a closed circulation according to this afternoon's reconnaissance report. It became TD 5 in the 5pm advisory with maximum winds of 35 mph and expectations of becoming a tropical storm in the next 24 hours.

Squandered Surplus

The large precipitation surplus which developed early this summer is being steadily eroded by the recent lack of rainfall. Although July as a whole was near average, most of that fell early in the month, and the accumulated deficit since July 1 is now over 1.5". No measurable rain has fallen at National Airport since the 0.17" on Aug. 10. At this rate, we are on track for a top-10 driest August.

CapitalWeather.com chart from NWS data, photo © Kevin Ambrose