DETROIT – What an afternoon it was on Wednesday.
As expected, a few storms with torrential rain developed as our typical lake breezes developed by early afternoon, and then the outflow from those storms triggered some additional storms -- and these were slow movers. At my house in Farmington Hills, I hit the weather jackpot, as one storm sat over me for an hour -- it just poured and poured, and I received over an inch of rain (1.18″, to be exact, in 1 hour 20 minutes, with most of it falling in the first sixty minutes).
Meanwhile, many of your tweeted me that you didn’t get a drop. It was truly one of those “haves versus have nots” sort of weather days. A lot of lawns around town are crunchy and brown, and I’m sure some farmers are struggling as well.
Thursday forecast
Today will be much the same as Wednesday: we’ll be mostly sunny, hot and humid this morning, with a few storms popping up around 1 or 2 p.m. Then, any of those storms could fire up some additional ones but, like Wednesday, more of us won’t get rain than will. Highs before any storms develop should reach the low to mid 90s (33 to 34 degrees Celsius), with the humidity making it feel like 95 to 100 degrees (35 to 38 degrees Celsius). Wind will be from the south at 5 to 10 mph.
Accordingly, the National Weather Service has extended the Heat Advisory until midnight tonight. This will be another tough day for those without air conditioning. Close the drapes and blinds on the side of the house that the sun shines in to help keep things a little cooler, and drink plenty of cold water (remember to NOT drink caffeine or alcohol, since those dehydrate you). Taking periodic cold showers also helps relieve some of the heat stress on your body.
The National Weather Service has also issued an Air Quality Alert, so those with respiratory health problems may find it tough sledding today (and some people occasionally e-mail me to say just that on days like today). There are little things you can do that make a BIG impact on reducing the amount of low-level ozone that develops on days like this: delay errands and trips to the gas station until evening, and also delay the use of gas-powered lawn equipment until evening as well. Also reduce the amount of electricity you use...turn off lights when not being used, perhaps dial up your thermostat a degree, etc. Not only does this save you money, but the less power that is generated by our coal-burning power plants, the better.
Today's sunrise is at 6:06 a.m., and today's sunset is at 9:11 p.m.
After any evening storms end, Thursday night will be another warm and muggy one, with lows in the mid 70s (23 degrees Celsius), and only a very light south wind.
"Finally Friday" is what Brandon Roux always says, and this week I'll add "Finally Cold Front" to that slogan, as an approaching cold front will increase our shower and thunderstorm chances by afternoon into Friday night. Let's hope all of us get a nice soaking this time. Highs Friday should reach the low 90s (32 to 33 degrees Celsius) before the rain arrives, and it'll still be a very humid day. Lows Friday night near 70 degrees (22 degrees Celsius).
Weekend outlook
We should have at least partial sunshine this weekend, and it will trend less humid as well. The computer models still differ on if we’ll get any pop-up showers and thunderstorms Saturday and Sunday -- I’ll have to update this part of the forecast tomorrow. But highs should drop a bit into the upper 80s (31 degrees Celsius) on Saturday, and into the mid 80s (30 degrees Celsius) on Sunday, with lows Saturday night in the upper 60s (20 degrees Celsius).
Next week: More heat
After highs in the mid 80s (30 degrees Celsius) on Monday, we’re back into the upper 80s (31 degrees Celsius) on Tuesday, and then potentially in the low to mid 90s (32 to 34 degrees Celsius) from Wednesday into next weekend. The best chance to get a thunderstorm appears to be on Thursday, but even that looks a bit tenuous right now. Let’s hope some of us can at least get a lake-breeze generated thunderstorm, because I don’t see any organized rain at this point.