Another week of cooler-than-normal temps
You could almost call it a "cool wave." But "cool" is probably not the best word to describe the slightly-lower-than-normal highs and lows in the NWS forecast for the next seven days. A "mild wave," maybe? Or a "pleasant wave"?
Whatever. It's welcome and it's saving us all money.
The real weather news is that we've slipped into this pattern of what meteorologists out at Sterling are calling "troughiness," as in, persistent low pressure to our north that is sweeping disturbances through the region, giving us plenty of clouds, with daily chances for scattered 
showers and thunderstorms.
And that seems to be keeping the temperatures in check. Highs for the next week will stall out in the low- to mid-80s. And the overnight lows will sink into the low- to mid-60s (maybe even some 50s in some places) - good sleeping weather if the humidity doesn't bother you. That's all a few degrees below the long-term averages for this time of year in Baltimore, which are in the 86/87-degree range on the top end, and 65/66 at night.
Baltimore seems to have been the focus of last night's rainstorms. One city church was struck by lightning. We could hear the thunder from the WeatherDeck in Cockeysville, but only received a bit of the water. Here at Calvert & Centre streets, however, The Sun's weather instruments picked up 0.92 inch of rain. (The station was down for a few hours this morning after some computer reconfiguration. Should be back shortly.)
And that was close to the most reported anywhere in the metro area. Hamilton reported 1.13 inches to the CoCoRHaS network this morning. Towson reported 0.92 inch. Kingsville, in Harford County, had 0.86 inch. St. Mary's County also got a good deal of rain, though probably from a separate storm cell. BWI reported only 0.37 inch up until midnight yesterday.
Sunday still looks like the best weather day of the long weekend for Central Maryland, with no rain chances in the forecast, partly sunny skies and a high near 84. The 4th comes with a 30 percent chance of showers and thunderstorms, starting after 2 p.m. and continuing into the evening.
(SUN PHOTO/ Mauricio Rubio/Cooler-than-normal bagpipers in Catonsville parade 2008)
