The end of this week will likely see the first official heat wave of the year, typically defined as 3 or more days with 90ºF+ temperatures. The hot and humid weather comes to a close this weekend as a backdoor cold front brings relief by Sunday. A couple rounds of active weather could crop up this afternoon and again Friday night.

Rest of today – hot, humid, with a high in the low-90s. Periods of clouds and sun with increasing clouds this afternoon. The area is under a flash flood watch due to the impending onset of showers and thunderstorms capable of generating heavy downpours of 1-2″/hour. You can see from the satellite image below that discrete, pulse type storms are already building. Coverage of these storms will increase and they will encounter conditions conducive for strengthening, with plenty of moisture in the atmosphere, no capping to speak of, and lots of sunshine leading to MLCAPE values between 1000-1500 J/Kg. Storms should die down by later this evening. If you’re out and about, carry an umbrella because you may get dumped on.

Friday – any relief from the heat from the storms today will unfortunately be short-lived. Temperatures Friday are expected to rise into the low-90s once again under mostly sunny skies. Friday night, as a backdoor cold front the northeast (so-called because it moves from northeast to southwest, the opposite of most cold fronts in the mid-latitudes of the Northern Hemisphere), we could see another round of showers and thunderstorms capable of producing heavy rain across the area.

Saturday – with the backdoor cold front slowly progressing through the area during the day, some potential exists for scattered thunderstorms. Temperatures will be more comfortable in the mid-80s with mostly sunny skies otherwise.

Sunday – mostly sunny with a high in the mid-80s. Best day of the weekend!