D.C.-area forecast: Air quality remains bad today but turning better into the weekend
Listen 5 min Comment on this story Comment Gift Article Share
* Code Orange air quality alert today, Code Red or locally higher a risk through morning — unhealthy conditions for one more day * Today’s daily digit Fast, informative and written just for locals. Get The 7 DMV newsletter in your inbox every weekday morning. ArrowRight A somewhat subjective rating of the day’s weather, on a scale of 0 to 10. 5/10: Fingers crossed our smoky haze is at least no worse than Thursday. Comfortable but air quality remains the concern. We should really start clawing out of the smoke later in the day.
Express forecast
Today: Mostly hazy. Shower/storm chance. Highs: Low to mid-70s.
Tonight: Dwindling showers and smoke? Lows: Low to mid-50s.
Tomorrow: Increasing clouds by afternoon. Highs: Low to mid-80s.
Sunday: Partly sunny, breezy. Highs: Upper 80s to low 90s.
Forecast in detail
More smoky haze is expected today. With a bit of luck we can get a couple of showers or storms to help cleanse the air a bit, especially later. Even with minimal raindrops, a wind from the west should help push the thicker stuff out. Tomorrow looks warm and generally pleasant, especially with lower smoke content. Sunday looks very warm and breezy ahead of storms and humidity into Monday.
Advertisement
Get our daily forecasts on your Amazon Alexa device.
Today (Friday): Smoke remains a problem, but its thickness and persistence remains less certain. Air quality is, at best, a Code Orange — which is still unhealthy for sensitive groups and long-duration strenuous activities for all. It’ll likely be worse than that at times through the morning. Midday and afternoon clouds may yield a quick shower but the main thunderstorm (and downpour) chance is mid- to late afternoon.
Smoke levels could suppress rain chances a bit and keep temperatures down into the 70s. Most of the region should still be able to get to the mid-70s, as it looks now. Afternoon wind gusts around 20 mph are possible, and expected to continue originating out of the smoky northwesterly direction. Confidence: Medium-High
Tonight: Shower and storm chances drop after sunset, if even any are persisting that late. Light west and west-southwest breezes could be the slightly better wind source direction as the night wears on, helping to improve air quality further. Other than potential haze, skies are mainly clear as we get past the early evening hours. Mainly low to mid-50s for our coolest temperatures, near dawn. Confidence: Medium-High
Advertisement
Follow us on YouTube, Facebook, Twitter and Instagram for the latest updates. Keep reading for the forecast into next week …
Tomorrow (Saturday): A sunny morning may see clouds move in during the afternoon. Smoky haze levels are still a bit of a question mark but currently we expect some improvement. A pop-up shower late in the day is ever so slightly possible. High temperatures may get a boost toward the low to mid-80s with a bit of down-sloping winds, compressing and warming as air sinks off the Appalachians and Blue Ridge Mountains to our west. Confidence: Medium-High
Tomorrow night: Skies are partly cloudy at times as low temperatures bottom out in the upper 50s to lower 60s. Southerly winds could help us keep decent air quality. Confidence: Medium-High
Sunday: Another pleasant morning but some clouds around could increase a bit more during the afternoon. A late day pop-up shower is still slightly possible, again, but not worth planning around as it looks now. Afternoon south-southwesterly winds could gust in the 20-30 mph range. This fetch of warm air from near the Gulf of Mexico not only is a better source for smoke-free but warmer air. High temperatures eye the upper 80s to low 90s, with luckily minimal humidity. There’s an outside chance we see a few mid-90s in the region, but skies would have to turn sunnier than currently forecast. Confidence: Medium
A look ahead
Sunday night: A late night chance of showers or a storm, especially nearer dawn. Skies may turn from partly cloudy to mostly cloudy as rain chances increase slowly with time. Low temperatures turn sticky as dew points rise on the back of steady southerly (moist) breezes. Merely 70 degrees around town near dawn, perhaps mid-60s in the coolest spots away from the Beltway. Confidence: Medium
Advertisement
Clouds, showers and storms are probable Monday and into the night. We should see at least a quarter inch of much-needed rain, perhaps even an inch in the lucky spots that see a downpour. A cold front approaching means very muggy conditions riding in on gusty southerly breezes. A couple of these storms could be strong, we’ll watch it. As for the sweat factor, we may only get to the low to mid-80s, as dew points eye the balmy 70-degree mark. Confidence: Medium
Any showers on Tuesday should mainly focus on the early morning as the cold front clears out. Skies should turn at least partly sunny as drier air moves in. High temperatures are again aiming for the low to mid-80s, but dew point may ease into the super-comfortable 40s. Confidence: Medium
GiftOutline Gift Article
Source: The Washington Post
