Ernestly Waiting for Rain

Now

Muggy. After missing by 1° on each of the weekend days, the official Washington temperature rose to 90° this afternoon for the 14th time this month, well over the 30-year average of 10.1 days of 90° or more in August. To the south, mid 90s were common in central and southern Virginia. Meanwhile, an area of showers and thunderstorms advancing toward D.C. and vicinity from the west threatens to end our dry spell as a mainly stationary front tries to work its way southward from the Mason-Dixon line.

Tonight and Tomorrow

More mugginess. There is a 30% chance of showers or thunderstorms through early evening and a 40% chance the rest of the night. Lows will be in the mid 70s in urban areas down to near 70° in the cooler 'burbs. Tomorrow will again be warm and humid with highs in the upper 80s to near 90° and a 40% chance of showers or thunderstorms.

Scroll down to Jason's post below for the outlook through the weekend.

Tropical Topics

The disruption to Tropical Storm Ernesto's circulation by the mountains of Haiti and then Cuba plus the inability to fly reconnaissance over Cuba have made it hard to pin down the storm's track, but it is now emerging back over warm waters north of eastern Cuba. The current forecast track brings it northward as a tropical storm along the southeastern coast of Florida Wednesday morning. The following track is quite uncertain. The 2pm forecast which had the storm moving back out to sea after brushing the Outer Banks has been replaced at 5pm with a more westerly path which brings the remnants of the storm as a depression up through central Virginia and a little to the west of the DC metro area late Friday. This could help bring some much-needed rain to the area. Stay tuned in the next several days as the situation becomes clearer.

Broadcast News

Spike Lee's documentary on Katrina, "When the Levees Broke" is being rebroadcast tomorrow night, the anniversary of Katrina, at 8pm.