Good morning folks, we’ve got improvement in air quality on the way today as our smoke plume continues to sink south which should allow for brightening and bluer skies as we end the week on a nice note, but I’ll tell you to enjoy it because Saturday is looking smoky, rainy, and with the potential of severe thunderstorm by later in the afternoon and evening, so there’s lots to talk about.

First of all, the GOES-19 satellite is back up and operational, so that’s good news. Moving forward, we’ve got a sunny day today with highs in the upper 70s to mid 80s with a light northwest wind, followed by lows in the 50s tonight as the smoke plume that passed south of us today, turns around and heads toward New England thanks to a warm front.

For Saturday, highs will reach the upper 70s to mid 80s, but more importantly, we’ll have multiple atmospheric hazards to monitor.

First, the smoke plume moves through roughly early morning to early evening tomorrow, and ground concentrations are looking likely, to some degree. So I wouldn’t expect great air quality tomorrow, especially during the noon to dinner time period.

Secondly, we have a warm front / cold front combo coming through the region, and while our humidity will be super low today with dewpoints in the 40s and 50s, tomorrow’s humidity will see dewpoints spike into the 60s to low 70s, so back to back we’ll have to two totally different feels to our air on multiple levels.

Clouds will dominate our Saturday with periods of showers moving through roughly during the late morning to mid afternoon timeframe with the warm front, and some downpours are possible, too. Not everyone gets wet, but I think many towns will, especially south of the Rt. 2 corridor.

Still, there will be some dry periods and lulls until about dinner time when the potential for more numerous downpours, and strong to severe thunderstorm chances increase.

In fact, we could see a squall line develop and so the potential for strong to locally damaging straight line wind gusts exists, along with street flooding or even isolated flash flooding if backbuilding of storms can occur. Lows will dip into the 60s with showers hopefully ending before dawn on Sunday morning.

Sunday should feature rapid clearing, with a gorgeous pair of days to follow through Monday with sunshine and highs in the 75-80º range Sunday, and the 80-85º range for Monday with lows in the 50s to near 60º.

By Tuesday and Wednesday more rainfall is expected with another system sweeping through the region, and by the following weekend even more rainfall is possible, so we’re moving into a wetter pattern it would seem for the back half of July, but without any heat wave signals for the moment.

I will keep monitoring the wildfire smoke potential and keep you updated, have a great day!

“Follow your bliss and the universe will open doors for you where there were only walls.”
― Joseph Campbell

YOUR NUTSHELL:
–Air quality improves from north to south today, though it is moderate to unhealthy for sensitive groups early this morning, especially south of the Pike
–Drier air advects into the region, pushing smoke and ozone south and away
–Highs reach the upper 70s to mid 80s with low dewpoints / humidity
–Lows tonight dip into the mid to upper 50s as a new plume of smoke aloft heads for New England from the southwest
–More ground-level smoke and poorer air quality is expected for Saturday about 6am to 6pm as of this writing, stay tuned for updates
–Clouds increase, and humidity really spikes on Saturday as a tropical air mass enters the region
–Scattered warm frontal showers with a few downpours work through the region by early to mid-afternoon Saturday, maybe even by late morning
–Highs reach the low to mid 80s
–A cold front approaches Saturday night, and ahead of it in this soupy air mass we’ll see downpours form and clusters of thunderstorms that may form into a squall line
–Straight line wind damage, street flooding, and hail are all possible for Saturday evening and night, clearing late
–Lows dip into the low to mid 60s as we dry and clear out
–Sunday and Monday look mostly sunny and hopefully without smoke, but I will update you
–Highs should reach 75-80º Sunday and 80-85º on Monday for a pair of very nice days
–By later Tuesday and then Tuesday night into Wednesday periods of rainfall are possible with another storm system

YOUR DAILY CELESTIALS
STAR:
–OUR STAR ROSE AT: 5:29am this morning
–OUR STAR SETS AT: 8:23am this evening
–TOTAL DAYLIGHT TIME: 14 hours and 54 minutes

MOON:
–OUR MOON RISES AT: 9:16am this morning
–MOON RISE DIRECTION: East
–OUR MOON SETS AT: 10:25pm this evening
–MOON SET DIRECTION: West
–MOON PHASE: Waxing Crescent (12.6% Illumination)