PM Update: Predawn showers expected. Gusty, strong storms possible Monday afternoon.
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Air quality in the D.C. region is straddling the yellow and orange levels on the U.S. Air Quality Index on Sunday afternoon, which means that air quality is generally acceptable but that people who are sensitive to air pollution could be at risk. Just limit super-long-duration, strenuous outdoor activities if you can.
A cold front Monday should bring continued air quality improvement, more humidity and beneficial rain in the form of thunderstorms — some of which could be strong with a few instances of damaging wind gusts possible.
Through tonight: Clouds continue to increase tonight with showers possible in the pre-dawn hours, perhaps as early as 2 a.m. but more likely nearer sunrise. Hopefully we don’t hear a “wake up early” rumble of thunder, but it’s possible. Southerly breezes increase a bit, perhaps gusting to near 30 mph a few times, helping boost our dew points into the muggier 60s. These conditions combine to halt temperatures from falling below the mid-60s to low 70s.
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Tomorrow (Monday): A fairly wet day, starting with waves of showers and perhaps a storm. Afternoon hours, through evening rush, have the highest chance of thunderstorms. Strongest, gustiest storms may aim for mid- to late afternoon, mainly east of Interstate 95. We should then clear with some sunshine before sunset. Humidity is more oppressive than what we’ve been used to, with dew points climbing to the 70-degree mark. Clouds help hold high temperatures back in the mid-70s to around 80 degrees.
Southerly winds continue to be moderately steady when not gusting occasionally near 30 mph. Luckily, we see overnight calming conditions behind the cold front as northwesterly breezes ease below 10 mph and clouds decrease quickly. It may take until mid-evening to be completely “all clear” from one last pop-up shower or storm, but post-sunset chances are pretty low. Mid-50s to around 60 degrees may allow us to open windows!
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Tracking our rainfall deficit and drought conditions
With a half-inch to an inch of rain possible Monday, we may halt the increasingly dry (and drought) conditions in our region. Orange colorings on the map below of the past 30 days’ rainfall deficit could be rolled back to yellow, and deeper yellows rolled back to lighter yellows.
We aren’t going to eliminate the 2- to 4-inch rainfall deficits with this upcoming cold front, though. Therefore, drought will probably persist, but at the very least, it probably won’t get much worse. Current drought, below, has expanded a bit since last week.
Where has it changed since last week? Yellow-shaded areas have gotten a bit drier, a small green-shaded area managed to improve (get wetter), and much of the region in the gray shading remained essentially unchanged.
We’ll talk more about this tonight in our weekly Sunday Sunset Live Q&A chat. Tune in at 8:33 p.m.! Note that next weekend is followed by a holiday Monday, Juneteenth, so we’ll chat that evening instead of Sunday.
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Source: The Washington Post
