Got A Ticket to Rise: Heat Advisory Friday

** Heat Advisory in Effect From 2 PM to 8 PM Friday **

Now

Sunny, warmer, more humid. Temperatures have warmed considerably this afternoon in the Washington metro area, but the humidity has increased more; temperatures are about 10° higher than yesterday (mid 80s), but dewpoints are 15° higher (near 60°).

Temperatures and humidities both have a ticket to continue rising through tomorrow as a very strong low pressure area for the season (978 mb this morning) in the upper Midwest helps pump heat and Gulf of Mexico moisture into the region. The heat wave should be short-lived however, with more comfortable conditions returning for the weekend.

Surface weather map at 2pm today from HPC/NCEP/NWS

Tonight and Tomorrow

Becoming hot, humid; late-day storms possible tomorrow. Skies will be mostly clear tonight with warm temperatures and increasing humidity; lows will be from near 70° downtown to the low and mid 60s in the cooler 'burbs. Tomorrow will be sunny, hot, and humid with highs in the mid 90s. Heat index values will be near 100. Severe thunderstorms are a possibility from late afternoon into the overnight hours.

For the outlook through the weekend and beyond with Larson's Long-Range, scroll on down to Josh's post below.

Tropical Topics: Gonu Gone-o

Unusually strong Tropical Cyclone Gonu continued to display an impressive appearance as it weakened to a tropical storm before making landfall in Iran in the early morning hours today. The storm was reported to have killed 28 people and caused significant damage in Oman.

Climate Corner

Today's WaPo carried a page A1 article, "Icy Island Warms to Climate Change", describing the effects of climate change on the 56,000 inhabitants of Greenland.

Meanwhile, at the G8 conference, the U.S. rope-a-dope climate strategy continued, as the final declaration stated, "In setting a global goal for emissions reductions in the process we have agreed today involving all major emitters, we will consider seriously the decisions made by the European Union, Canada and Japan . . ." Environmentalists were "were unimpressed."