Heat and Smog are Here

As tankengine's picture above attests, today's air quality is not so good. Heat, humidity, stagnant air and lots of sun have combined to raise our ozone and particulate counts high enough to warrant an Air Quality Alert. The hot and humid air are going to fall just shy of the mark needed to declare a heat advisory, but it will still be plenty miserable outside. Gothamist mentioned tips to beat the heat yesterday.

The culprit bringing us the heat and humidity is the Bermuda High, a big high pressure system that more or less parks itself over Bermuda for the summer. Today's max temperature should surpass 90 degrees for the second straight day (and for the fourth time this year). The Bermuda High should just make a brief appearance as a cold front slowly approaching from the Great Lakes should cool us off considerably on Friday. As that front approaches we may see our share of showers and thundershowers. There's a slight chance of rain tonight and a really good chance for showers tomorrow and tomorrow night. Some of the storms may contain intense rain, gusty winds and maybe even a little hail.

If all goes as expected, which is not always the case, a few leftover showers may be around on Friday morning. The weekend, though, is looking really nice. Mostly sunny with temperatures in the mid- to upper-70s for both Saturday and Sunday.

Hazy (polluted) Manhattan photo by tankengine on Flickr.