Pretty sweet mid-summer weather today. You can see the moisture clearing out from southern Pa. and northern Md. in the water vapor image above.

The temperature is around the average for this time of year in Baltimore - mid-to-upper 80s. And the humidity is blessedly low - with dew points in the 50s to around 60. (The Sun's weather station stopped reporting during a rain storm last Wednesday afternoon. It's back on line today.)

But the high-pressure center that's responsible for the dry heat is scheduled to move off shore by mid-week, putting us in the return flow from the South. And that means more heat and rising humidity readings.

Forecasters out at Sterling are looking for highs around 93 degrees for BWI Tuesday through Thursday, with enough humidity around to set off some showers and thunderstorms by Wednesday afternoon, lingering into Thursday. Some spots could see very gusty winds and hail.

By Friday, and on into the weekend if the forecast holds up, we can look forward to more seasonable highs in the mid- to upper-80s again, and better humidity readings. 

We're technically over the hump now, with long-term average temperatures beginning to drop as we head into August. We'll likely see some more very hot days ahead, but on the whole, we should expect things to cool a bit as the days grow shorter.

Baltimore usually gets a nice cool break during August. A strong front goes through and we see daytime highs in the upper 70s or low 80s, with some really cool nights. It happened on the 18th last year, daytime and temperatures clunked, for several days, from the 90s into the 70s and 60s. I always see that as a harbinger of autumn. It's when they actually start to see color in the trees in the Adirondacks, or northern New Hampshire. A nice time of year up there.

We'll look ahead to the stats for August on The Sun's Weather Page on Thursday.