Warm Washington Wednesday Cooler weekend ahead

Now

Sunny, warm, humid. It's another warm and somewhat humid afternoon in the Washington metro area. By mid afternoon, several regional locations had reported temperatures of 90° or more, although National had reached only 88°. Dewpoints are generally in the mid and upper 60s.

The month overall is now 1.6° above the long-term average, but the mean of 73°, which will undoubtedly be reduced by the weekend, is well below the 75° achieved just 2 years ago and significantly below the all-time warmest September of 77.1° in 1980 (pdf file).

A slowly approaching cold front provides this week's only (slim) hope for rainfall late tomorrow or early Friday.

CapitalWeather.com chart from NWS data, photo © Kevin Ambrose

Tonight and Tomorrow

Warm and humid, chance of showers. There is a slight chance of scattered showers or thunderstorms through this evening, especially over and to the west of the Blue Ridge. Lows tonight will be in the upper 60s to near 70° in the city to the mid 60s in the 'burbs. Tomorrow will feature variable cloudiness and highs in the mid to upper 80s with a 40% chance of showers or thunderstorms by evening.

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

Tropical Topics

Despite yesterday's indications of limited strengthening, Tropical Storm Karen was approaching hurricane strength in the eastern Atlantic this morning with peak winds of 70 mph. The predicted northwesterly track, however, continues to keep it away from land areas.

Tropical Depression 13 is near tropical storm strength and meandering slowly in the southern Gulf, expected to eventually make landfall in eastern Mexico. As of the 5pm advisory, it had still not strengthened and was nearly stationary.

There are several other areas of interest. A new low pressure area near Key West is being watched for possible development as it moves northeastward toward the Atlantic coast of Florida. A couple of tropical waves in the far eastern Atlantic also have the potential for development in the next couple of days.

Capitol Climate: National Security

The House Committee on Science and Technology's Subcommittee on Investigations and Oversight is holding a hearing tomorrow on "The National Security Implications of Climate Change". A former Army Chief of Staff and a former Director of Central Intelligence are scheduled to testify. The CNA Corporation (operator of the Center for Naval Analyses) recently issued a report on the subject based on the input of a blue-ribbon panel consisting of eleven retired 3+ star admirals and generals.

The subject is also the theme of an upcoming episode of The Weather Channel's Forecast Earth, previously postponed due to storm coverage.