Cold air and a Fall-like weekend

(Map courtesy of Accuweather)

The coldest air so far this season is going to drop into the region for the weekend.  Cold front number one will cross over Thursday evening. A second cold front will push through on Friday evening and after daytime highs in the mid 60s on Thursday and in the upper 50s for Friday, we will see highs only around 50 on Saturday.  Combine that with a stiff NW wind and lake effect rain showers and it's going to be a rather cold and damp couple of days.
Friday night football is going to be what I call "dog nose" weather...cold and wet so make sure you bundle up if you are going out.

Not much going on

There's not been a whole lot of exciting weather going on the past few weeks.  Aside from a lot of rain, with more to come, it's been a rather uneventful time. No complaints here.  But, now that fall has officially arrived, I suspect we can start to look for Mother Nature to throw us some radical mood swings. I don't see anything bizarre in the next few weeks, just some roller coaster temperatures from the 70s to the 60s. Typical fall stuff. When the winter storms start forming, that's when we'll have fun!

Is that the sun I see?

Wow!  Monday morning and the sun is shining!  It's been a while since we have seen clear skies with sunshine. Finally the remnants of that upper level storm from last week have moved away.  That's going to allow us to have a couple of nice days before colder air and clouds move in midweek.

Temperatures today (Monday) and tomorrow will be around 80. That's just a tad above the normal daytime high of 75. But, don't get too excited.  Two cold fronts will cross the area this week, one late Tuesday and another on Wednesday, knocking daytime highs back into the 60s. In fact, we could see overnight lows dipping into the 40-45 degree range on Thursday and Friday mornings.  Ooooo!  The chill of Fall.

Labor Day looks cool and damp; tropical rain later?

As I mentioned earlier, Labor Day was going to be cool. It looks like it's going to be even cooler than first thought. The daytime high temperature will top out just below 70. And, the rest of the week will see highs of 70-75. I'm ready for that after the 90s on Friday and Saturday. Didn't we already do like twenty days of that in July? Oye! Later in the week, we may also get some rain from Tropical Storm Lee. At this time that storm is meandering off the Gulf coast. It should move inland over the holiday weekend and then head northeast. Exactly where is will go is still uncertain, but several of the long range forecast models have the storm center heading heading up the Ohio valley mid to late week. If that happens, we will at least have lots of clouds and depending on the track some significant rain, too. More on that later. Meanwhile, enjoy your holiday and dodge the showers when you can.

The Labor Day Weekend

It's going to be a variable holiday weekend around NE Ohio. Before we even get to the weekend, July-like heat is going to be heading back into the region. High temperatures Thursday will be in the upper 80s. On Friday we may top 90. Saturday will be back into the mid to upper 80s. Then we start to cool down. The high on Labor Day (Monday) will be in the 70-75 degree range. It should be a very pleasant holiday to be outside.
I think the first half of September is going to be very nice as well. The long-range forecast is calling for temperatures to generally hang around the low to mid 70s most days. Precip should be normal.

A nice break next week

If you are tired of the heat, you'll enjoy what's in store for us next week. Our upper atmosphere pattern is going to change and the hot, sunny weather we have had for the past several weeks is going to shift into a more progressive pattern with frequent intervals of clouds and showers. Along with this shift will come cooler temperatures. Daytime highs next week will be near normal meaning around 80 degrees rather than 90.

Me thinks I'm looking forward to that.  Enjoy!

I thought August was supposed to be hot

When I was growing up, it always seemed that August was the hotest month of the summer.  Remember the line "the dog days of August?" Seems that July is in the race this year. Yesterday (Thursday, 7/21) we topped out at 97 at the Weather Center. Cleveland Hopkins tied their record set in 1952 with a 97.  Toledo blew their record out of the water.  The old high was 99 in 1930.  They beat it by three maxing out at 102 degrees.

For us, the worst of the heat is over for now.  We are still going to be well above normal and the mercury will still flirt with 90 from time to time, but the 95+ temperatures have left the building, hopefully for the remainder of the summer.

This weekend is going to be warm...around 90 both days...but, then will we cool down a tad into the mid 80s for a few days.  It does look like another mass of hot air will push through the area late next week and into the weekend, but it will not be as prolonged or as hot as this one was...just lower 90s. (Actually, I'm waiting for nighttime lows to drop back into the lower 60s and upper 50s. That's makes for a very pleasant morning.)

Anyhow, enjoy what's left of July.  The outlook for August is for normal temperatures, so there is some relief coming down the pike about the second week of the month.