Nice Holiday Weekend for the Mid-Atlantic

In the above satellite pic taken ~noon EDT, I highlighted a few areas.  The first is Arlene now making landfall in Mexico.  I also show the NW flow still advecting beautifully dry and cool air towards PA.  I outlined the area of fairly intense heat over the center part of the country and I showed a unique boundary just offshore of the east coast where the cool, dry DENSE air flowing off the continent clashes with the warm humid air from the tropical Atlantic and the very warm gulf stream air producing numerous showers and thunderstorms for the fish.  Below is a top view of the season's first tropical storm coming ashore as seen using water vapor imagery.

And for the heat...here is the forecast max temps for today....quite toasty in...say...gimme a T for Texas...gimme a T for Tennessee!...well not so hot in Tennessee, but much warmer than here!

As for that boundary out over the ocean, here is the model's depiction of how much fresh water will try to desalinate that section of the gulf stream!  Note how dry it remains here over PA.  We sure could use some of the fresh water precipitating out of the atmosphere over our region; it appears unlikely at this time unless a shower or storm can develop when the humid surge comes in Saturday night and Sunday morning.  But even then, the humidity and the rain chances will be brief!  The 4th of July looks to be warm and dry and not very humid over almost all of the Mid-Atlantic....say from LonG Island to Dewey Beach, DE!

Here is the maximum progression of the heat upper high making its way towards PA.  The 588 mb line makes it to central PA.

Then note how far SW it gets "squished" by the jet stream in just 36 hours!  When cool dry air wants to move, it will, at will whenever it is up against warmer, more humid, and less dense air!  That map below is indicating a beautiful July 4 here in PA, NJ, MD, DE, NY...also, look how far north that ridge goes up into Nunavut!

So enjoy the nice string of summer weather, albeit we could use some rain, into the foreseeable future.  There will be some unsettledness possibly Saturday evening and Sunday when some humidity makes itself known.  But if that upper air pattern verifies above, that humidity will shunted out of here like a lineman whose first move is to stand straight up!

I personally don't remember this as I was only 8 yrs old at the time, but 40 years ago today, one of my favorite movies was released today in 1971!  That wacko Gene Wilder played a great role in this film with characters having outstanding names:  Veruca Salt (not the alternative band!), the Oompa Loompas, Mike Teevee, Charlie Bucket, Augustus Gloop, Slugworth...well you know I'm talking about Willy Wonka and the Chocolate Factory!   What a great social commentary on the ugliness of human nature. But Charlie ultimately takes the path less traveled!  What a great flick...enjoy a flashback below. And Johnny Depp can't hold even half a candle to Gene Wilder!

Happy 4th of July weekend!

Smitty

AA:  A nice 4th of July weekend...and today marks the 40th anniversary of the release of Willy Wonka and the Chocolate Factory...a movie way ahead of its time!