Declaration of Independence Day Weather
July 03, 2012; 7:14 AM
Tuesday 10 a.m.
A batch of thunderstorms moved across the upper Great Lakes last night, and the storms have been trending southeastward this morning. At their current rate of advance, they will reach the Northeast coast by tomorrow morning. Some of those can be heavy with damaging wind, not necessarily in the same places still trying to recover from the monster storms that hit during the first half of last weekend. While the largest area of thunderstorms should be gone from most Northeast locations before tomorrow evening's fireworks displays, new storms can develop in the hot humid air mass... so keep track of the latest with your accuweather.com app on your cell phone, iPad, etc.
This map shows individual lightning strikes from midnight through 8:25 a.m. EDT today.
More than 35,000 individual strikes are plotted.
These are dog days of summer. They was originally named for when the dog star Sirius rose about the same time as the sun. The astronomical connection no longer exists, and Sirius is a radio network, but the dog days have come to refer to the 40 or 50 days when it is likely to be hottest. As we sniff out this afternoon's tail, we have to be ready for a couple of thunderstorms, and they can be terrierizing. Sometimes you think a storm has more bark than bite, and then all of a sudden a cloudburst of rain is unleashed and it rains cats and dogs. When this happens, don't step in a poodle.
The thunderstorms do cool it off a bit, but the air won't feel like it came by Labrador Retriever. Instead, humid air will hound the Middle Atlantic states for most of the rest of the week. Afternoon temperatures should reach or surpass 90 before each day fleas. While we are sounding the beagles for thunderstorms, we should tick off many hours when sunshine gets a new leash on life. In fact, as fur as Thursday and Friday are concerned, it should be at least partly sunny from the Great Lakes to New England... so don't be melancollie.
Aside from that, it's the samoyed story of hot and humid. One thing you should be trained for: when a thunderstorm does attack, pay heed to those pointers about moving to a safe place. Make no bones about it; thunderstorms can be ruff.
The views expressed are those of the author and not necessarily those of AccuWeather, Inc. or AccuWeather.com