Sogginess abounds

Can we say “humidity”?  The Fredericksburg area did not see any direct effects from Hurricane Isaac but we surely have been the recipient of its collateral effects, one of which is the extreme stickiness that we currently are experiencing.  The dew points are somewhat insane with values around the area ranging from 71 degrees (F) at the University of Mary Washington weather station to 74 degrees at the soggier Shannon airport location.  Such dew point levels are consistent with tropical airmasses and this one is no exception.

With so much water available in the atmosphere it doesn’t take much of a disturbance to wring out rainfall.  Even though the nearest frontal boundary is a weak warm front currently near the Mason-Dixon line there will be a couple of minor upper air “wrinkles” that will likely squeegee out some precipitation on us this afternoon via some showers and storms.  Over the next 24-36 hours another cold front will slowly press eastward into our region but it will only push to the Chesapeake Bay area before stalling out, providing some sunshine later this week before another slow-moving weather system pulls more moist air northward over us this weekend.

High temperatures will be in the mid-80′s on the cloudier days and will approach 90 once again Friday when we should see mostly sunny skies.  Then, according to this CPC graphic, next week we’ll have normal September temperatures.

Given that our September  average high temperatures start out the month in the low 80′s (and finish the month in the low 70′s) we should begin the autumn cool-off soon…we just need to clear out the tropical sogginess first.

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