Warm & Dry Week Ahead

By Jay Grymes & Steve Caparotta

WAFB Storm Team QuickCast:

- slow warming trend continues through the week, becoming more humid
- rain free into the weekend, at least

The one down-side of the past sunny weekend was the Code ‘Orange’ AQI on Sunday -- “unhealthy levels of ozone for sensitive groups.” Other than that, it was a rather nice May weekend. The forecast calls for “moderate” AQIs (Code ‘Yellow’) for Tuesday and Wednesday.

As expected, the upper-level ridge we talked about last week has settling over the central U.S. and the current forecast keeps it anchored there for the rest of the work week and right into the weekend. The ridging will hinder cloud development all week long: that translates into a continued dry forecast. In fact, we’re going essentially ‘rain free’ right through the weekend with only slight rain chances for next Monday and Tuesday.

After those big rains on May 9-11, the following dry-out was welcomed. But this current run of dry weather may be going just a bit too far! With the sunshine and heat expected this week, the lawns and gardens may be in need of a little ‘garden hose’ help by the weekend!

Look for BR metro area morning lows to inch their way up through the 60°s this week: low to mid 60°s for the next morning or two and then mid to upper 60°s towards week’s end. The increase in minimums will be accompanied by rising dew point temperatures as low-level Gulf moisture continues inbound on southerly flow. Not only will that give the air a muggy feel, but we should expect a return of patchy morning fog by mid-week, if not sooner, especially in the usual spots.

As for the afternoons, mid to upper 80°s for today and Tuesday will climb into widespread upper 80°s for the second half of the week with a number of WAFB neighborhoods flirting with highs of 90° or more by Thursday and Friday. By week’s end, most of us get a real taste of summer heat-and-humidity.

If you haven’t had it done in some time, now might be a good time to consider having you’re A/C unit serviced. And don’t forget to clean or change the air filter too.