In many ways today is playing out just like Sunday. Morning sunshine quickly pushed temperatures over 80 F, destabilizing the atmosphere and leading to "popcorn" afternoon showers and thunderstorms. (I raced out to the Western Prom yesterday afternoon to catch a thunderstorm roll in (quick! to the nerd mobile!) and I was taken by how many fellow weather weenies had arrived before me. The words "funnel" and "rotation" were thrown around with alarming frequency considering the storm, but perhaps more concerning: not a single weather weenie seemed to recognize me. I'm not one who thinks local TV makes you a celeb, from from it...but if my own kind don't like me, I might as well retire now haha)
In any event, the shower and thunderstorm activity today is a bit more widespread when compared to Sunday but the intensity of the storms is about the same. The cells I'm picking up on radar right now are short lived in duration so just keep an eye to the sky if you are outdoors this afternoon. A few storms will be capable of producing very small hail, but most will just roll in with some gusty winds and heavy rain. Temperatures have gone flat in most spots due to an increase in cloud cover, so look for highs to end up in the upper 70s to low 80s.
Any remaining showers fizzle out quickly tonight with the lack of sunshine instability and we go partly cloudy through the rest of the night. Temperatures will drop into the upper 50s in spots, but that's about it.
Tuesday looks fantastic as Monday's upper level disturbance exits over the Gulf of Maine. High pressure will replace it and full sunshine is expected from start to finish. High temperatures should end up in the low 80s in most locations with relatively low humidity readings as well.
If only that ridge of high pressure would hang around for the 4th of July....
Instead the computer models dig in a pretty deep trough of low pressure. As such I'm forced to give us a partly sunny forecast through the first half of the day followed by LIKELY showers and storms during the afternoon. It looks like those storms will start developing around 1 PM and continue into the evening. This timing isn't ideal for fireworks displays and I believe it will be a case by case basis as far as which areas are a "go" and which aren't. Temperatures should end up in the upper 70s to low 80s, so in that way, the day will feel the part of the summer holiday. Stick with our team on the 4th itself (and by "our team" I mean whoever gets stuck working the holiday) as developing radar trends should allow you at least a LITTLE time to plan as far as fireworks go.
Back to nice weather on Thursday with high pressure moving back in...look for mostly sunny skies and highs in the low 80s.
Warmer but still sunny on Friday.
Even warmer, (some low 90s) on Saturday before afternoon thunderstorms cool us back down for Sunday.
Overall, if you took this week off from work, you won't be disappointed.
See ya!