Looks like we'll have one more day of this clear, very dry weather before low pressure now over the upper midwest begins to press east and bring us actual RAIN off and on for the latter part of the week and into the weekend.

Well, okay. Maybe not the sort of rain we really need. (The red dots on the USGS map at left represent streams flowing at record-low levels for this time of year.)

More like rain showers, with chances running in the 20 to 50 percent range, and accumulations of a quarter inch or less, if the forecasts out of Sterling hold up.

For today, we'll stick with relatively cool temperatures after overnight lows in the 20s. The high Tuesday afternoon will be hard-pressed to reach the 50s. The average high for this time of year at BWI is 57 degrees, so we are almost 10 degrees below the norm. We also remain very dry. The relative humidity here on the WeatherDeck in Cockeysville bottomed out at 16 percent late Monday afternoon. It was 25 percent at The Sun's weather station at Calvert & Centre streets.

And as this high pressure moves east of us, winds will swing around to the east, clouds will build in from the west as the storm system approaches with a cold front. The problem for our thirsty region is that it may take this storm system time to overcome the dry conditions here and push humidities high enough for significant rain. Sterling is calling for only a tenth to a quarter-inch on Thursday. We've had only 0.8 so far this month - about 2 inches behind the average pace, with just a week left in the month.

We'll get a second chance to wet the place down this weekend, as another low moves out of the Southwest and heads for Quebec. That will bring us another cold front and another chance for some showers late in the weekend. Temperatures will be closer to the long-term averages later in the week, with highs near 60 degrees and lows in the 40s.