Gray and wet ... So what else is new?
The weather service has lots of ways to say it: Showers likely. Showers. Thunderstorms likely. Chance of thunderstorms. Chance of showers. Mostly cloudy. And they've used ALL those labels to describe the weather for Baltimore from today straight through next Monday night.
The wet, gray weather that kicked into gear on April 1 continues to dominate the region, making it easy to forget the few gorgeous breaks we've had, such as last weekend's dry, sunny spell.
Today's weather comes to us straight off the Atlantic Ocean, borne on winds out of the east and southeast, circulating counter-clockwise around a low pressure center to our west. That marine air explains the temperatures, which may not leave the 60s today or tonight; and the gray skies.
Those winds are pushing water up th
e Chesapeake and holding it there. The National Weather Service has issued a Coastal Flood Advisory through 6 p.m. Wednesday night for low-lying stretches along the Chesapeake and the tidal Potomac River. That switches to a Coastal Flood Watch tonight through Thursday morning.
The advisory and watch warn that bay water may rise 1 to 1.5 feet above predicted levels, and 2 feet at high tides. Moderate flooding of low-lying areas is possible. If you snap any photos of high water today, email them to me (frank.roylance@baltsun.com) and I'll post 'em here.
Any spit and drizzle we may see this morning will likely give way to more widespread rain this afternoon as low pressure presses in from the west. As that low moves by on Thursday, it will bring a warm front, with temperatures rising well into the 70s and a greater risk of thunderstorms.
Friday and Saturday look downright hot as yet another warm front pushes through the area. High temperatures could reach the upper 80s, possibly setting off more thunderstorms. And that will be followed by a another low and MORE rain late Friday into Saturday.
Had enough yet? Sorry. After a cold front brings some relief on Sunday, more chances for showers and thunderstorms appear in the forecast for Monday. You want sunny? Maybe Tuesday.
Since April 1, the instruments at BWI-Marshall Airport have recorded 17.38 inches of rain. That is 8,64 inches above the long-term averages, almost double.
And for the sunshine-starved, it will come as no surprise that the airport has recorded only 10 "clear" days in the 77 days since April 1. Another 38 were rated "partly cloudy," while 29 were "cloudy."
(SUN PHOTO/Karl Merton Ferron/June 2004)
Comments
Did someone pick up and re-locate our area to Seattle, or vice-versa??
Posted by: Sam | June 17, 2009 1:09 PM
How are we doing drought-wise? I imagine that we are far away from that at this point.
FR: The drought is so over.
Posted by: Moshe Pelberg | June 17, 2009 3:56 PM
So, is it just me, or can we blame this rash of cloudy rainy weather on your article complaining about our drought-like conditions back in April?
This is all your fault, Frank. :-)
FR: I am so, so sorry.
Posted by: JJT | June 17, 2009 4:28 PM
I wonder how we are doing on the long-term rainfall deficit. Is there any info available on the water table levels?
FR: Rainfall deficit at BWI has been erased. And then some. Water tables are recovering. Some have reached normal levels, but not all. And recharging will slow with hot weather. You can check on the monitoring well near you from this link: http://groundwaterwatch.usgs.gov/StateMaps/MD.html
Posted by: Patrick Sears | June 18, 2009 9:16 AM
This is worse than living on the south coast of Wales. We had rain, but not this much. It was usually a soft steady rain, not like the huge storms we've had rolling through... including this morning. In fact, the children I lived with in Wales had never heard thunder until we were on a trip to the south of France!
Posted by: Pigtown-Design | June 18, 2009 10:10 AM
I believe this is all my fault. My family and I went out to Washington state at the beginning of April. We even took a road trip up to Seattle. We must have brought all that wet weather back with us.
My deepest apologies! ;-)
Posted by: NukemHill | June 18, 2009 10:35 AM
Will there be a change in this weather pattern as the month of June closes out or should we expect this for the rest of the summer?
FR: There's no sign of relief in the near term, and the official long-range forecast shows no clear pattern either way - wet or dry - on precipitation through August for our area. But the same models missed this very wet spring completely, so I wouldn't put much faith in any of it. We'll get what we get.
Posted by: sgio | June 18, 2009 10:46 AM