By Alex Sosnowski, Expert Senior Meteorologist for AccuWeather.com
AccuWeather.com reports this week will be a break from last week’s heat wave but it will have opportunities for several rounds of showers and thunderstorms and the heat will still have its moments.
A lack of tropical moisture and humidity much of last week greatly reduced the amount of thunderstorms. A massive area of high pressure also worked to suppress thunderstorms.
When storms finally rolled through Friday into Saturday, some locations were hit hard with flooding downpours, while other spots received little or no rain.
State College, Pa., received over 2 inches of rain and Allentown, Pa., picked up nearly 6 inches of rain. Meanwhile, New York City barely had measurable rain whatsoever.
This week, the atmosphere will be much more liberal with the amount and coverage of showers and thunderstorms, compared to last week. Flash flooding will visit more areas, more often than last week.
Instead of many areas just receiving a single storm or shower, most places will have several hard downpours spread out over the course of the week.
There will still be some areas that get little rain due to the random nature of summer thunderstorms. It is impossible to say exactly where those places will be.
While actual high temperatures will be 5 to 10 degrees lower on most given days this week, compared to last, higher humidity levels may make it feel worse at times, even well away from the peak heat hours of the afternoon.
The first wave of showers and thunderstorms is rolling into the central Appalachians this afternoon. Some of these storms will survive the trip to the Atlantic Seaboard late tonight or will regenerate Tuesday.
Additional waves of thunderstorms will follow.
So while those that braved the heat for outdoor plans without interruption from downpours last week, chances are they will be interrupted more than once this week.
