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More Lightning Possible Tonight, Tomorrow, And Sunday
By
Joe Schumacher
Published Aug 19, 2011
Modified Aug 19, 2011
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By
Joe Schumacher
Published Aug 19, 2011
Modified Aug 19, 2011
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That was a great lightning show last night, wasn't it? Despite the dramatics, only JFK reported more than a few drops of rain in the city. If you missed the show there will be another chance of thunderstorms tonight. A deep layer of warm, moist air is moving up from the south and that is going to get nudged later today by a fraying cold front approaching from the west. Meteorologists like to calculate a thing called CAPE, for Convective Available Potential Energy, to see how likely it is for thunderstorms to occur. The local Weather Service says today's CAPE will be 1500-2500 J/kg, which makes the atmosphere moderately unstable. To translate, that amount of energy is roughly equivalent to the number of calories in half a stick of butter for every cubic yard of air within a couple thousand feet of the ground. That's enough to get some scattered, but intense, showers and thunderstorms brewing starting this afternoon. Today's high will be in the muggy mid 80s.
A bit of dry air may make a brief appearance tomorrow morning but we are otherwise looking at more sticky weather over the weekend. Highs Saturday and Sunday will again be in the mid 80s. Both days will have an ever present chance of scattered showers and thunderstorms, especially in the late afternoon and early evening hours. These storms aren't expected to be fast movers so they could drop lots of rain over small areas.
Sometime late Sunday night a cold front should sweep through town and wipe away all the humidity and chance of rain. Clear skies and seasonable temperatures are expected for at least the first half of next week.
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Joe Schumacher
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