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Wedding weather: Into the homestretch

Alright, here's the deal. My daughter is getting married next Saturday, and we are beginning our weather-watch this weekend. The National Weather Service forecasters out at Sterling make their local forecasts a week out, which means next Saturday's date is just now coming up on the screen.

Los Angeles Times So far, the week ahead looks relatively mild, with seasonable highs in the mid-80s, and a 30- to 60-percent risk for showers and thunderstorms nearly every day and every night through Tuesday. Then things get even better. No rain, no lightning, just mostly sunny skies and mid-80s highs through Friday.

But it's Saturday we care about, folks. The wedding is outdoors, at 7 p.m. It's the evening after the latest sunset of the year, so the sun will still be quite high. But temperatures should be moderating by then. I'm looking for 80 degrees or cooler, please and thank you. There's no AC under that white gown. Thunderstorms are OK so long as they come after we've gone inside to party. (And so long as the power doesn't go out. That happened at a wedding we attended last year. Not good. Paying a DJ. Need the juice.)

We'll even welcome a few clouds. Cuts the direct sunshine and cools the guests. A nice breeze would be desirable, say 5 mph or so. Enough to push the mosquitoes away, but not enough to blow out the wedding day hairdos or knock over the flowers.

LA Times file photo 

MEMO TO WEDDING PLANNER: See above. Think you can manage all that? Very important! Just send me the bill.

Comments

Congratulations--and good luck, weather-wise! (At least your daughter had the foresight to avoid a cicada year!)

congratulations and good luck!

(I'm also hoping for good weather -- seeing the double feature at Chesapeake Shakespeare Theater in the Ruins (eliicott city, outdoors) that night. My husband wanted to know if the weather'd be ok, and I said it HAD to be -- you'd placed the order for a gorgeous evening!

You could ask that the DJ, florist, caterer, and salon take out weather coverage that will payout based on weather station measurements instead of loss.

WeatherBill.com offers this type of non-insurance-based coverage. The coverage would refund damp hair-dos, a soggy cake, and tents after a certain amount of rainfall... instantly. Imagine getting your daughter's wedding for free if there were a huge storm. Might be a good excuse for an extra extravagant honeymoon (booked with weather coverage, of course).

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About the blogger
Frank Roylance is a reporter for The Baltimore Sun. He came to Baltimore from New Bedford, Mass. in 1980 to join the old Evening Sun. He moved to the morning Sun when the papers merged in 1993, and has spent most of his time since covering science, including astronomy and the weather. One of The Baltimore Sun's first online Web logs, the Weather Blog debuted in October 2004. In June 2006 Frank also began writing comments on local weather and stargazing for The Baltimore Sun's print Weather Page.
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