UNDER THE RIDGE

With a ridge of high pressure building in, expect; slim chances of rain, high temps, high humidity and a hazy blue sky for the next several days. Check out the clouds that are pushing in from the Baja region of the pacific. They stretch through the four corners, and into parts of Nebraska and Iowa. From there, they dive across southern Illinois and Indiana and push to the southeast. This arced shape path is at the edge of the high that is building in just to our south. Complexes of thunderstorms often develop nocturnally at the edge of such a summertime high and some can pack quite a mean punch, delivering damaging straight line winds sometimes in excess of 70 mph! These complexes are often referred to as ridge runners and the pathway sometimes is called "the ring of fire"!

This ring looks to remain to our north over the next week. We'll be looking upstream for our next change. We'll need a trough that has enough jetstream energy to break the ridge down and actually drag a different air mass through our area. We may have a good wait until this happens, so until then, drink plenty of water and try to keep cool!

Posted by Ted Zarras at 10:55 PM