Heat, storms and bad air
Now THIS is summer on the Chesapeake. Forecasters at Sterling are predicting high temperatures today in the 90s. They're also looking for rising humidities and at least a chance at thunderstorms in the Baltimore-Washington corridor. Add to that a Code Red Heat Alert for Baltimore, ozone pollution in the "unhealthy for sensitive groups" zone and a notable lack of rain since mid-April, and you have just about everything one expects from summer in these parts.
Here's the Hazardous Weather Outlook issued this morning by Sterling. Here's the official forecast for the area. And here's the Code Red Alert from the city Health Department. The city has opened its cooling shelters.
And this morning's Drought Monitor map shows most of Maryland now registers as "Abnormally Dry." No drought yet, but we may be absorbed within the expanding Southeast Drought region before too many more weeks are out.
