It's August. It's DC. Get Used To It.

Now

Sunny, hot, moderately humid. Temperatures are in the low to mid 90s throughout the Washington metro area this afternoon, while dewpoints are near to slightly below the August average of 66°, so heat indices are mostly within a degree or two of the actual temperature. Leesburg was the local hot spot at 4pm with 97°, but the heat index was only 96°. Except for some very isolated showers in the mountains, radar is clear for several hundred miles.

Hot temperatures and seasonable humidity are likely to continue into the weekend.

Tonight and Tomorrow

Crank up the AC. Tonight will be mostly clear and quite warm with lows in the low 70s to near 75° in the city and some upper 60s in the 'burbs. Tomorrow will be sunny, hot, and seasonably humid with highs 93-96° and a very slight chance of late day thunderstorms.

For the outlook through the the weekend and beyond with Larson's Long-Range, scroll on down to Josh's post below.

Tropical Topics

The tropical wave which is now over the eastern Caribbean was looking more impressive on satellite images today, but was still disorganized. It still has some potential for development. A Hurricane Hunter plane was enroute early this afternoon to investigate.

Another area of interest is a batch of showers in the northern Gulf of Mexico.

The AP is reporting (via WaPo, for some odd reason under a "Global Warming" link) that "Ex-Hurricane Center Chief Wants Job Back". Ousted Director Proenza's lawyers are alleging in an 11-page letter that he was illegally fired.

Mediaorology

The Weather Channel's Dr. Heidi Cullen was interviewed ("Into the Limelight, and the Politics of Global Warming") in Tuesday's New York Times about her career in climate research and reporting.

Photo courtesy New York Times.