>95 for Chicago today, 100 tomorrow in Washington DC?

Finally, the Northeast can enjoy some true summertime heat after a cool summer which has brought poor beach attendance and less golfers onto the course because of rainy days.

The core of the heat which was centered over Texas and Oklahoma the past several days has shifted eastward, joining forces with the Bermuda high which is currently centered over Georgia. Clockwise windflow is drawing war,, humid, tropical air up from the south and up and over the Appalachains and is bringing air temps up into the mid-90s this afternoon in DC and Baltimore with Philly perhaps topping out near 90, but today the Midwest will see the hottest air with strong southwest winds that is forcing the hot Texas air into the Midwest, a front aligned from the CO-KS line to Lake Superior is keeping areas to the otherside of the boundary much cooler. Minneapolis will fail to make the mid-80s today whilst Chicago that is on the warm side of the front and right in line with thwe strongest southwest flow will likely see a high near 95 today which would make it the warmest day there since August 2006 when a 99 degree high was set. This morning started off very warm with a low around 77 setting the stage for the lower atmosphere and surface air to heat more easily than if it started cool. It’s like the sun, warming southwest wind simply tops up what’s already very warm air. Humidity levels running high today will make Chicago and downstate Illinois as well as across the lower Midwest feel like over 100 this afternoon. It already feels like 96 degrees at O’Hare.

Tomorrow, the front and the core of this heat will progress eastward. The 90s of today for Chicago and the rest of the Midwest will be 80s as the front passes through tonight. But on the Eastern Seaboard, be ready for the hottest air of summer 2009. It will be sketchy as to how hot Central Park gets since 1) its been cool and damp and 2) the foliage tends to moderate the heat, so is there an outside change Central Park actually fails to hit 90? Yes, but unlikely to won’t. Newark, LaGuardia and other areas surrounding the city that is close and surrounded by concrete and asphalt will most deffinately hit at least the low 90s. It’s going to be sweltering, places like Philly, DC and Baltimore I think will all take a run at 97/98 degrees with a good chance DC hits 100. Humidity gets pumped straight froom the Atlantic and Gulf will feel very much like a steam bath inside an oven. Heat Northeasterns are not accustomed to this summer so be very careful. Ground level ozone will create poor breathing as well as poor visability so you might not get the clearest of views tomorrow on top of the “Rock” or Empire state.

This heat won’t last, certainly not the 90s with realfeels at or above 100 as the front finally forces it’s way to the coast. Around the periphery of this heat, major thunderstorms and cumulonimbus towers are lighting up the skies surrounding this hot dome, these storms that blow up every day with the worst of them around noon onwards as surface heating cranks up the thermals and builds the towering towers and then dance around the high, unable to move into it as the “cap” sheilds clouds out as the air is warmed aloft. When warming the air above, it’s cuts back the lapse rate at which air rises and is able to cool, condense and form clouds, but this process stops this as the temperature profile (lapse rate) of the atmosphere isn’t graet enough to support this and therefore sunshine and cloudless skies rule and helps the solar ras to go more directly into heating the ground and therefore heating the lower part of the atmosphere to heatwave levels. Anyone living either around the hot some or along the frontal system thats pushes across the country west to east (front range of the rockies and western plains as well as northern plains) watch for darkening skies, lightning, strong winds, torrential rains and hail with the potential always there for tornadoes. The other other slight prohibitor to the heating process within the hot dome is, humidity, atmospheric water content, which some of the sun’s energy will go into evaporation of this hanging water droplets that float around in the air, this of course makes for a more uncomfortable and sticky heat to your bidy but actually restricts how much heating the ground can get rather than the bone, dry desert air in the Southwest which heats better because there is little to no moisture floating around in the air. A strong moisture pump is getting ejected into the hot core centered over the central and eastern plains, but it is the winds that is transporting Texas air into Illinois and Michigan, allowing for such hot air, despite the fact the core is perhaps as much as a thousand miles to the south.

Stay cool and hydrated.

Thanks for reading.

– Mark