It was certainly a fantastic weekend weather-wise courtesy of a big dome of high pressure building in from Canada.
This same dome of high pressure will continue to dominate the weather pattern for the entire week. This will mean some temperature swings, but it also means almost no chance of needed rain until almost Friday.
The dry air and clear skies at night will mean a few almost chilly mornings until the second half of the week, when the center of the high shifts slightly offshore and a change in wind direction will bring in more humidity.
Milder starts to the mornings, sunshine and southwesterly winds will lead to summerlike temperatures in the afternoons. A weak cold front will approach the area on Friday and basically stall out. But that may provide just enough lift to the atmosphere with the increased humidity to bring a few light showers.
It’s not back in a formal drought yet, but September finished 2.29 inches of rainfall below average for the month (Washington-Reagan National data) and the topsoil is getting pretty dry. The are could use an all-day soaking rainstorm for that reason alone. Further down the road when there would be plenty of fallen dry leaves, fire weather danger would only increase.
Also worthy of note, as of this article’s publication, there is no active tropical activity in the Atlantic Ocean.
Seasonable average highs this week are in the low to mid 70s and average lows are in the mid 50s.
[custom_gallery]
Daily weather highlights
Monday
- Clear and chilly start, especially in the rural areas
- Abundant sunshine
- Warming quickly after sunrise
- Seasonable highs in the afternoon
- Very low humidity and light winds out of the north
Tuesday
- Mostly clear start except near the Chesapeake, a risk of low level cloudiness there
- Chilly start but near the Bay not as chilly
- Light winds, variable wind direction
- Slightly more humid, still very comfortable
Wednesday
- Cool start in the morning with patchy fog
- Mostly sunny skies all day with warmer than average temperatures
- Slightly more humid but again still very comfortable
Thursday
- Mild start in the morning with patchy fog
- Starting to really notice the increased humidity, feeling sticky
- Temperatures well above average, feeling like summer
- Sunshine with a mix of fair weather clouds
Friday
- Muggy by October standards
- Increasing clouds during the day, especially north of Washington
- Chance of light showers or drizzle
- Summerlike temperatures if clouds are delayed later, lots of uncertainty
Editor’s Note: The WTOP Workweek Weather Blog is intended as an in-depth yet plain language summary of the business week’s weather potential in the D.C. area along with an explanation of the contingencies and uncertainties that exist at the time of publication. For the latest actual Storm Team 4 forecast, check out the link on the main WTOP Weather Page.
