DELMARVA FORECAST
Thursday night: A chance of a stray thunderstorm in the evening, then partly cloudy with smoky haze. Lows in the mid 70s. Chance of rain 20 percent.
Friday: Mostly sunny with smoke. Chance of a pop-up thunderstorm. Highs in the low 90s. Chance of rain less than 20 percent.
Saturday: Partly cloudy with smoke. Scattered showers and thunderstorms late, some strong. Highs in the low to mid 90s. Chance of rain 70 percent.
Sunday: Partly cloudy with scattered thunderstorms. Highs in the upper 80s. Chance of rain 40 percent.
Monday: Mostly sunny. Highs in the mid 80s.
Tuesday: Partly cloudy with scattered showers and thunderstorms. Highs around 90°F. Chance of rain 60 percent.
Wednesday: Partly cloudy with scattered showers and thunderstorms. Highs in the upper 80s. Chance of rain 40 percent.
FORECAST DISCUSSION
Normal high: 88°F / Normal low: 69°F
The weather headlines continue to be dominated by heat, and increasingly by smoke from Canadian wildfires, although the smoke will take the lead as we look ahead to Friday.
Thursday night, a weak frontal boundary will sag south over Delmarva, and possibly trigger a stray thunderstorm. Most folks will be dry, but any storm that does pop up could have some gusty downpours and lots of lightning. Then the rest of the overnight will be partly cloudy with smoky haze.
Air quality will likely be at its worst on Friday, with nearly all of Delmarva expecting smoky air that will be hazardous for all who work and play outside. Time outside should be limited because of the dirty air. One positive from the smoke is that it is expected to keep temperatures a little cooler (well, a little less hot) on Friday, with highs only expected in the low 90s, meaning the brief heat wave will have ended.
Then the next chapter of the Delmarva weather story will be an area of low pressure passing to our north as the high pressure ridge that brought the heat breaks down. It will swing a cold front across our region that will likely trigger scattered showers and thunderstorms Saturday afternoon and evening. Some of these storms could be strong to severe, with damaging wind gusty, intense downpours, and frequent lightning the primary threats. All of Delmarva is under a Level 2 "Slight" threat for severe weather on Saturday.
That front could get hung up around our region on Sunday, and continue with a threat for scattered thunderstorms, however as of Thursday evening, it looks like that threat could be farther south; watch this space for updates.
Temperatures gradually settle back to more seasonable levels next week, but with an unsettled pattern with scattered showers and thunderstorms.
In the Tropics: A disturbance expected to develop in the northeastern Gulf has a low, 20 percent chance of development off the Carolina Coast in the next 7 days.
A tropical wave near the Cape Verde Islands has a low, 10 percent chance of development in the next 7 days.
Neither system is an immediate threat to Delmarva at this time.
