July 18th, 2011 Forecast

Heat and humidity will be a common denominator in the week's forecast.   Thunderstorms will also play a part in it from time to time, with late tomorrow afternoon into tomorrow night serving as one of those periods of time where thunderstorms will be possible.   A weak cool front will slide south into the region and serve as a focal point for thunderstorm development to our north during the afternoon hours.  The storms should slide south and southeast, towards us for the evening.  We'll have a more thorough post on the thunder threat later on this evening.

Ahead of the weak front resides heat and humidity.  High temperatures tomorrow will range from 91-93 in many locales, with heat index values around 95 or so in the prime heat of the day.  While it looks like child's play compared to the potential heat of late week, it will still feel very warm out.

Tonight's weather features a mix of clouds and stars, with lows ranging from the mid 60's north to low 70's city and Shore.

Week Ahead:   The weak front stalls out nearby and thunder threat extends into Tuesday with some pop up storms possible.   As the much talked about heat ridge extends east into the Appalachians and eventually Mid Atlantic, we'll see temperatures climb in the latter half of the week.   Along with the increased temperatures will be a chance of some thunderstorms in the afternoon on Thursday.  We could also see a complex of thunderstorms travel around the periphery of the heat ridge through the week.  Timing those specific rounds of storms is tough to do so I'll leave those out of the forecast for now but they may need to be nudged in, especially north of the city, later this week.    The hottest days look to be Friday and Saturday at this point, with temperatures in the upper 90's if not 100 degrees on both days.