LUCK OF THE DRAW
Like Friday, scattered showers and downpours have hung around Saturday afternoon. Another 0.25-0.75″ to some lucky communities but most locations have dealt with the wonderful, rain-cooled air as temperatures for most are in the 80s and even 70s!
Rain chances start to fizzle away through the evening and we will start to enter another quiet stretch through early next week. Highs Sunday will be back in the upper 70s.
SAHARAN DUST INCREASES
Some light dust will give way to a moderate plume of Saharan dust as we move through the weekend and into early next week, peaking over our area on Monday. Air quality is forecast to be moderate, but if you have any respiratory issues, the dust may aggravate things. It will also likely lead to hazy skies and more vivid and colorful sunrises and sunsets due to the particulate matter in the atmosphere.
QUIETING BACK DOWN
Thanks to a building high pressure out east, our rain chances go poof over the next few days. High temperatures Monday-Thursday will stay in the upper 90s near 100 degrees.
The heat dome towards the west (four corners region) will start to shift further west allowing for us to see a favorable pattern aloft for active weather once again.
ANOTHER PATTERN CHANGE?
Rain and storm chances increase late next week thanks to the heat dome shifting west and allowing us to see northwest flow aloft. This pattern typically allows for a few disturbances to move overhead to bring increase rain chances and perhaps lower temps.
An upper level low will stay towards the Midwest and Ohio Valley late next week, but it will send a cold front towards Texas Thursday/Friday. This will try and bring us our next chances for rain and storms by late Thursday into Friday.
If the front pushes completely through the region, we could see below normal temperatures into the weekend (average high around 97 degrees) but opting right now that the front could stay just to our north.
The Climate Prediction Center shows an active weather pattern sticking with us towards July 21-27 as they are leaning with above normal rain chances and below normal temperatures. Stay tuned.