A large dry air mass is taking up residence over the Great Lakes into the Northeast. The center of this air mass is high pressure centered over Detroit as of late this afternoon. Since this air mass is so dry (dew points are in the upper 40s to near 50) temperatures will cool quickly tonight. While it won’t be a record, Syracuse should drop to close to 50 degrees. That means a lot of outlying areas will be in the 40s by morning.
That same dry air mass that will lead to cool weather tonight will warm quickly tomorrow with the return of sunshine along with an increasing west-southwesterly wind. That will help to import warmer air that is building to the west. We will end up 10 to 15 degrees warmer tomorrow than today.
Even warmer air will likely race east from the mid-section of the country Friday as a cold front sags south from Canada. In fact, it’s kind of a race between the hot air and the cold front. Right now, it looks as though the hot air should (barely) arrive before the cold front does. Consequently, we should manage to experience record heat (record for August 31 is 92 set in 1995) on Friday.
The cold front will push south and allow for somewhat cooler air to arrive Saturday and Sunday. Meanwhile, we’ll be watching where the remnants of Hurricane Isaac travel this weekend. Current indications are that remnant low and its moisture should travel along and west of the Mississippi River through Friday evening and then make a turn east Saturday and should be located over the southern Great Lakes region by Sunday evening.
Exactly how the remnant low moves will have a large say as to whether or not we’ll receive any showers or thunderstorms late this Labor Day weekend. For the latest on the storm’s movement,
check out the National Hurricane Center’s web site.
