Cool now, hot later
Even the NWS forecasters out at Sterling seemed surprised at how cool today is turning out to be:
"TODAY WILL BE COOLER THAN YESTERDAY WITH THE
CLOUDS/SHOWERS...STRUGGLING TO REACH 80 BELIEVE IT OR NOT IN MANY
PLACES."
It's only 73 degrees here at Calvert & Centre streets. That's up from a low of 69 degrees at 8 a.m., but cooler than it was for most of the night. Nice day for eating outdoors. (SUN PHOTO by Barbara Haddock Taylor 2004)
The cause is the cold front that swept across the region this morning, and then stalled just to our south. Low pressure riding along the front has produced a few sprinkles here, but it looks like the risk of rain is diminishing as high pressure begins to build in behind the front, drying things out and clearing the skies. Friday should be sunny and seasonable, with a high in the mid-80s.
A high in the mid-70s this afternoon would be remarkable for early August, but not quite a record. The coolest high on an Aug. 6 in Baltimore was 70 degrees, set on this date in 1993. It's 71 out at the airport as I write this, and we hit a high of 74 degrees just after midnight this morning, so there's no chance of a record there, any way you slice it.
The highest daily low maximum for an August day in Baltimore, by the way, was 73 degrees, on Aug. 5, 1954. The lowest was 62 degrees, set on Aug. 26, 1908 and Aug. 31, 1911.
By this weekend, however, we will all have forgotten about this lucky break. Forecasters are looking for highs of 93 degrees at BWI on Sunday, and 95 and sunny on Monday. If so, Monday will rank as the hottest day of this summer so far. We've had just seven days in the 90s this year - three of them in April and four in July. The highest was 94 degrees at BWI on July 16.
Time to switch off the AC again and open the windows for a few days?
