Heat Index: High, Not Horrendous

Now

Sunny, hot. It could be worse: Temperatures are in the mid to upper 90s this afternoon, but dewpoints generally in the low 60s and even some upper 50s have kept heat indices mostly out of triple digits. By late this afternoon, all 3 major airports in the region had reached at least 96°. The relatively moderate humidity means that already parched lawns and gardens are likely to continue turning brown for at least another day, however.

Heat relief on tap by Thursday should last into the weekend.

CapitalWeather.com chart from heat index equation at zunis.org

Tonight and Tomorrow

Hazy, hot, increasing humidity. Under mostly cloudless but hazy skies tonight, lows will be in the upper 70s downtown and in the upper 60s to low 70s in the 'burbs. Tomorrow will be continued hazy and hot, but with gradually increasing humidity and highs again in the upper 90s. Heat indices will be near 100.

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

Staying Cool: WaPo Chat

Join us tomorrow at 2pm for a live discussion on the heat at the online WaPo.

Mediarology: Tornado Diary

The first show in a 3-part BBC-produced series, "Tornado Diary", will appear on WETA-TV, Channel 26, at 9pm tomorrow. The first episode, "Oklahoma City", focuses on the notorious F5 storm of May 3, 1999 (also excellently described by local author Nancy Mathis in "Storm Warning"). The program will be repeated Thursday at 1am and Sunday at 5pm. The other 2 episodes will be shown on succeeding Tuesdays.

Climate Clues

A tip of the Rabett ears for a pointer to an important article scheduled to appear tomorrow in the Proceedings of the Royal Academy. The paper, by M. Lockwood and C. Frohlich, was featured as a news item in the July 5 issue of the journal Nature. It is described as "the final nail in the coffin for people who would like to make the Sun responsible for current global warming." Based on solar data for the last 100 years, the authors were able to show that recent trends in solar activity are actually opposite to those required to explain global warming. The results are also discussed in the UK Guardian.