Goodbye to June; Hello to July

It is so very hard to believe that 2012 is nearly halfway completed as we embark on the 2nd half of this earth's revolution around ol' sol.  For those of you not enjoying the heat and humidity our summer season has to offer, the only solace I can offer is that aphelion (point in earth's orbit farthest from the Sun for the year) will occur on July 4!  Problem; earth is merely 1/30 farther than at perihelion in January.  But losing that amount of radiation has to help to some degree...ehh?  As for astronomical observations, if you are up early enough, enjoy the planetary pairing of Venus and Jupiter in the brightening eastern sky prior to the 5:41 am sunrise.

Now onto the heat...and it has been hot after a glorious start to the week!  Yesterday we hit 97ºF at KMDT!  Couple that with dewpoints in the mid 70s and it was downright oppressive outside in these parts!  Much warmer than Thursday as you see the observed maxes below...

Note that the seat of heat is more in the Ohio Valley whereas the NAM predicts the hottest of wx will be occurring over the Mid-Atlantic region Saturday as you can see below...Note that 58ºF in NH; that is the home to "world's worst wx", Mt Washington.  Kinda looks inviting...don't cha think?

The dew point temps will not be as impressive either as some mixing from aloft has included some slightly drier air from above.

I've been studying the HRRR (The High-Resolution Rapid Refresh Model) and have been very impressed with this short term model.  It nailed last night's derecho in terms of timing and radar returns.  It moved the MCS to nearly the exact minute...or so it seemed...across the Mason-Dixon area and swung it slightly NEward into the ocean.  Here is the remnant cloud shot from the complex of thunderstorms that moved by late last evening as of early this am...

Another similar situation could arise later this afternoon as you see a complex somewhat organizing over Chi-town in the above satellite pic.  Couple that with the heat and humidity and the energy in the mid-levels of the atmosphere and voila, thunderstorms will pop.  Here is the HRRR depiction of the spin at the 500 mb level later this afternoon...all those colors can't be good news...right?

This has prompted the Storms Prediction center to place much of our region under the watch for severe wx later Saturday...Note how the 2 correlate very well...Coincidence?

At least today will not be as hot; but it will still be cooking outside today.  here are the 850 temps for later Saturday pm...

And the hi-res depiction of surface temps that will accompany upper air temps...

But the NAM has even hotter wx for its take on things...especially across VA.  We will see what we will see...

And today will actually last longer than the 24 hour day!  A leap second will be inserted into the world's civil time systems at the end of June 30th Coordinated Universal Time (the second before 8:00 p.m. Eastern Daylight Time). The minute 23:59 UTC will have 61 seconds, not 60, to adjust for a slight accumulated slowdown in Earth's spin. So let's enjoy our slightly longer Saturday and the heat it has to offer...I wonder if the ancient Greeks added leap seconds to their sundials?

And speaking of time, I'll leave you with this classic from the 60s...about time...but you better have some time (I spared y'all the full length version) to watch/listen,etc to this epic DJs break-song!

Enjoy the weekend...and the upcoming July 4 holiday!  Be safe!

Smitty

AA:  Hot!  Storms Saturday.  Impressed with the new HRRR model.  So, once everyone learns to interpret these new models and where to best access them, there will be no need for me to write these anymore...Hope summer has been good for you/to you to this point!