Saharan Dust Is Our Friend Next Two Weeks

Many times, when nothing is going on, I have shown you wild fires on satellite pictures.  It always amazes me to think a fire is so big to appear on pictures 23,000 miles up in space.  Today I'm not focusing on fires, but dust spreading westward off of Africa.  It's called the SAL (Saharan Air layer) layer of drier, stable air.

Seeing dust from space?  That tells me there is a lot of dust and dust means stable air & quiet times.  It's pretty normal for late June through July, but it'll go away as we head into August & September.  So where might the next tropical threat arise?  Off the Carolina Coasts later this weekend into next week.  Why?

There is a well defined slow moving upper low over the Bahamas, which has no weather currently around it.  However, as the upper trough that has picked up the remains of Beryl works off the East Coast, there is a small chance the upper low works down towards the surface.  NHC isn't talking about it so neither will I worry about it.  Plus, it's east of Florida.  Locally, the remains of Beryl are still causing issues over the Ohio Valley.

There will be another surge coming down the lower Mississippi in the coming weeks.  It appears we won't need to worry about a Fall salt water wedge as long as the rains keep falling up north.

NWS draws in a surface cold front, but I chose to place a dashed (yellow) boundary along the cloud lines.  You have to go back to Dallas to find really drier air/lower dew points.

Our weather tomorrow will depend on where the boundary sets up.  Higher rain chances will be south of Lake P. with lower farther to the north.

So expect basic summertime to continue with no tropical threats this week through next week.  Finally,

Remember that "heat dome"?  It's shifted to the West Coast with no signs of coming back over us this week.  Record highs are sparking more climate change news, but you already expected that.  Stay tuned!