DC: DisComfort

Now

Partly sunny, warm, muggy, some storms. It's another muggy afternoon in the Washington metro area with some popup thunderstorms already appearing earlier. After reaching at least 93° by 1pm, National's temperature retreated to 82° the following hour in a very light thunderstorm, but Dulles surged ahead to 95° by mid afternoon. To the south, traditionally warm Fredericksburg combined a dewpoint of 75° with a temperature of 99° to get a sweat-soaked heat index of 111.

At post time, the only warnings in effect were marine warnings for Chesapeake Bay and severe thunderstorm warnings in south-central and southwestern Virginia. No watches were posted. Here at Update Central in west-central MoCo, a slight rumble of thunder has just begun. After another day of discomfort, more pleasant conditions are in prospect for the upcoming weekend.

Tonight and Tomorrow

Chance of evening storms, continued muggy. Showers and thunderstorms will be scattered across the region (30% chance at any given location) through this evening. For the rest of tonight, warm and humid conditions will continue with lows in the mid 70s downtown and the low 70s in the 'burbs. Tomorrow will be hot and humid with highs generally 90-94° and thunderstorms likely, some possibly severe, in the afternoon and evening.

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

Climate Corner

If you're confused (or just curious) about some of the claims that have been made regarding the atmospheric thermodynamic effects of increasing CO₂, check out the latest post at RealClimate.org by Spencer Weaert, called "A Saturated Gassy Argument".

The Weather Channel's Forecast Earth blog had a post yesterday by our own Andrew Freedman on the Emily Yoffe WaPo op-ed cited earlier by Dan.

Drought Watch

A June 22 article in The Week magazine, "Desperate for Water", surveys the effects of long-term drought in the western U.S.