BLOG: Record Heat

Temperatures are no lower than the 80s in most places early this morning. And, with such high humidity, it actually "feels like" it's in the lower-90s as of 4:30 a.m. in parts of the Greater Baltimore area!

Temperatures during the same hour yesterday morning were mostly in the 70s. Since most places are running about 5 degrees higher early today, it certainly looks as if the mercury will wind up a few degrees above 100 this afternoon.

We haven't seen any of the low clouds or fog form, which was fairly prevalent early yesterday morning, and the sky today will just offer lots of hazy sunshine. With such tremendous heat at the surface and much warmer than normal air aloft, there won't be any real support for widespread convection this afternoon.

The atmosphere will be sufficiently "capped," and most winds will be out of the west and northwest. The upcoming night will be very warm and humid, much like this past one, and the temperature will be no lower than the upper-70s or the lower-80s in the larger cities.

The weekend will be getting off to a very hot and humid start tomorrow. While the actual high temperatures will probably average 1-3 degrees lower than today's, it'll probably still be very close to 100 in some neighborhoods. 

The excessive heat and humidity will be getting trimmed just a bit on Sunday, but we'll also have to address the possibility of a few thunderstorms.

Certainly, the rain will be welcome, and our best guess at this point is that the widely-separated thunderstorms which will accompany a front pressing southward will occur around here late on Saturday night or during the daylight hours of Sunday. Sunday afternoon, the focal point of any thunderstorms will probably follow the front into Maryland.