Fantastic July 4 weekend weather

[CanisLupusArctos]

This upcoming July 4 weekend will feature some of the most perfect weather we've had for this particular weekend in quite some time. High pressure has been to our west for the last couple of days, giving us a northwest air flow (from Canada.) The High will take its (clockwise) circulation offshore of the east coast this weekend which means we'll be getting the opposite airflow on its other side -- the warm air from the south.

If you don't like humidity, keep those windows open for the next 24 hours or so, and chill your house off tonight. The heat and humidity will begin to build on Saturday afternoon and Saturday night will be a warm overnight, in the 60s. Sunday's temps will go up from there. It looks like we'll be in the lower 90s with high humidity on both Sunday (July 4) and Monday (everyone's day off.)

The heat is expected to last through most of next week. It is possible that by Tuesday we will have an official heat wave -- a minimum of 3 consecutive days of 90+ temps.

This is quite a stroke of luck for this area, given the way summer weather has been the last couple of years, and considering that the last couple days have been so fall-like across the northeastern US that it snowed on Mt. Washington yesterday (July 1.) There have also been late season snows in the Rocky Mountains, and severe thunderstorms across the country this year have been dropping some very large hail (softball size). It is all an indicator of cold air being overly available (overstaying its welcome?) nationwide.

With such a trend, there has been plenty of reason to think this 'big weekend' for the lakes region might be cool and unsettled as it was last year. But, celebrate! That will NOT be the case.

The water temperature is now 69 degrees (at Black Cat Island WeatherCenter after reaching 76 degrees during the high humidity last weekend, when the dewpoint reached 72. The water temp is greatly affected by the humidity. In humid weather the water does not lose much surface heat to the evaporation process, so it stores the sun's energy all day and does not lose much of it overnight. The last few days have given the region an autumn-like dryness, with dewpoints in the lower 40s at times. Dewpoints will be on the rise again, and when they do, so will the water temperature.