Blog: Humidity Holds With Chances of Rain This Week

The scorching days of summer are upon us and from the looks of it, they’re not going away any time soon. At least for the next five to seven days, there’s some chance that solid rain will change things. The first dose will arrive Monday evening and Tuesday.

Until then, the stubborn and classic DST pattern holds for most of Monday. It will therefore become mostly clear tonight and heavy with lows in the upper 70s. The southwest breeze picks up a bit on Monday, bringing our afternoon temperatures easily into the mid-90s. And while heat indices will be either side of 100°, the breeze can make it a bit more tolerable. Especially in the morning.

An approaching cool front reaches the region on Monday evening, allowing a few evening showers or thunderstorms to develop (mainly for those north of the peninsula). Unfortunately, said cold front does not sweep across the region, but stops just above it. This will keep the flow from the southwest going, keeping things warm and humid. It will then act as a trigger for showers and scattered thunderstorms on Tuesday.

A few showers and thunderstorms could kick in Tuesday morning, before we likely get a good burst of showers in the afternoon and evening. Some of them could be strong to severe so we will have to keep an eye out for the weather.

The rain we see on Tuesday is expected to keep temperatures in the 80s – but with the humidity also holding, temperatures will still feel like the 90s.

It becomes more summery Wednesday and Thursday – partly cloudy, warm and humid, showers / isolated showers late in the day. Chances of rain likely increase as we move into next weekend.

If you are looking for a place to cool off, the local beaches have recently been the place to be. Yes, the sand in the summer heat will burn your toes and the sun will burn your skin, but the recent upwelling has brought refreshing water to shore. After days and days of south-southwesterly breezes last week, the warm waters at the surface have drifted offshore. Thus, creating a “hole”, which is then replaced by deeper, colder ocean water. Water temperatures are in the upper 60s off the coast of the northern Outer Banks and in the 70s near the Virginia Beach waterfront.

We haven’t talked about the tropics lately and for good reason! Things remain calm in the Atlantic. Over the past few weeks there has been a stubborn layer of Saharan dust – said dust and sand from the Saharan desert in Africa is lifted into the atmosphere by the trade winds, drifting in the Atlantic. Hovering where tropical cyclones tend to develop, the dust dries out the atmosphere and tends to prohibit tropical development.

Things may change in the next couple of weeks or so, we have to remember that hurricane season is upon us! So use this quiet time now to prepare if you haven’t already.

Get out early to beat the heat, “enjoy” tomorrow’s warm breeze, and welcome in some much-needed rain on Tuesday.

Meteorologist Steve Fundaro