[youtube http://www.youtube.com/watch?v=ojJgQUkNrkk&w=480&h=360]
CONTINUED HOT: The heat wave continues into the holiday with readings well into the 90s, perhaps over 100 in some areas. Heat Advisories and Excessive Heat Warning remain in effect. Heat Indices will be in the 100s easily today approaching 110 in some areas. Be sure to keep all heat related precautions in mind when venturing out for all the holiday activities today and tonight.
RAINY DAYS: The state can sure use a couple of these over the next few weeks and there may be some but it’s not going to amount to whole lot for a large part of the state and region. A cold front will move into the state late Friday into the weekend bringing a chance of some showers and thunderstorms to the area. Given the heat across the state currently, any storms that do develop may become severe with large hail and damaging winds being the likely threats. Rainfall could be decent in areas that get a heavy thunderstorm, however most areas will get a quarter inch or less. The cold front will also bring temperatures back down closer to seasonal levels with 80s to lower 90s possible by early next week.
SEASONAL THEN?: The GFS isn’t show the heat ridge redeveloping in this run, showing the trough coming through this weekend and continuing into next week before flattening into a zonal flow. This would keep temperatures near seasonal conditions toward the middle of the month but we’ll keep close watch on whether the ridge rebuilds again on future model runs and videos.