More Pleasant in Mount Pleasant

Now

Not as hot, less humid. Not just Mount Pleasant, but the entire Washington metro area is enjoying much more comfortable conditions this afternoon. Temperatures have run well up into the 80s and even to 90° in the southern fringes of the region, but dewpoints are 10° or more lower than 24 hours earlier after a cold front passed through around 5am. After a string of above-average temperatures extending back 2 weeks to July 26, the next several days will seem especially nice.

Tonight and Tomorrow

Dry and pleasant. Tonight will be mostly clear with comfortable humidity and low temperatures from the upper 60s in town to near 60 in the coolest 'burbs. (The last time the official low was below 70 was July 24.) Sunny skies and low humidity are on tap for tomorrow with highs in the mid 80s.
Scroll down to Jason's post below for the outlook through the rest of the week.

Precip Recap

The thunderstorms late yesterday afternoon and evening were quite skimpy in the immediate metro area. Most places inside the Beltway had less than 0.1" (light blue area); much of Montgomery County, for example, was bone dry. The 0.22" recorded at National was enough to keep the month of August so far just barely above average when combined with the amount which fell in the wee hours of yesterday morning. Following the very dry last 3 weeks of July, many lawns, at least in this part of MoCo, are looking quite brown.

24-hour precipitation through 8am today from NWS

Tropical Topics

The National Hurricane Center continues watching a low pressure area which is now about 800 miles east of the Windward Islands for possible development into a tropical depression.

NOAA today issued an updated hurricane outlook for the remainder of the season. The new outlook continues to predict an above-average (75% chance) hurricane season, but the numbers are slightly reduced from the earlier forecast: "12-15 named storms, with 7-9 becoming hurricanes, and 3-4 becoming major hurricanes."

The NOAA outlook follows by a few days the new Klotzbach-Gray prediction from Colorado State. This update also reduces estimates from earlier predictions with 15 named storms, 7 hurricanes, and 3 major storms.