Oh, boy, this is exciting! Yesterday was the first time in two months to be at least seven degrees cooler than normal! With only a slight warm up today and tomorrow, July is going to wind up being slightly cooler than the long-term average. Today's high will be near 80 degrees and the passage of a weak trough this afternoon may produce a few fluffy cumulus clouds.
More importantly, the passage of the trough means the wind will start coming out of the south, increasing our humidity during the next couple of days until we're in a tropical bath on the weekend. Thursday should warm to the lower 80s and Friday to the mid 80s and there is a chance of scattered showers and thunderstorms both days. It's quite possible the rain will continue over the weekend, but we have no idea what's going on with the temperature forecasts. AccuWeather and the Weather Channel think Saturday will be unseasonably cool, but the National Weather Service has us in the low 80s.
While we here in the east have been having a slightly cool summer, it has been hot and dry out west for the past couple of months. As a result there have been many forest fires. Fires in Yosemite and Washington have been grabbing attention lately, but those of us here in New York should soon see the affects of massive fires in northwestern Canada. The smoke and aerosols from those fires have made their way down across the Great Lakes to the Mid-Atlantic states. Having that gunk in the jet stream may produce some brilliant orange and red sunsets the next few days.
