It will be very warm to hot and humid in the eastern half of the nation today with most locations topping out between 85-95 degrees. Lots of hazy sunshine but scattered thunderstorms will develop from the Northeast to the Ohio Valley late this afternoon and tonight. The heart of the rain and thunderstorms push through the Ohio Valley, Upstate NY, and interior New England tonight, which leaves the big cities along the I-95 corridor under threat of severe weather on Saturday.

Boston to Providence, Hartford, NYC, Philly, Baltimore, and Washington are under threat Saturday for storms with strong damaging winds, frequent lightning, and torrential downpours. If you will be around the big cities on Saturday, especially in the afternoon, this is your HEADS UP.

Temperatures will come back down a little bit for the start of this 4th of July weekend across the northern tier of states, especially Saturday and Sunday. Even in the Southeast, a slight drop in humidity and storm chances can be expected by Sunday. By the 4th of July, it’s typical weather across much of the nation. No huge extremes, lots of sun, and no large-scale organized areas of bad weather. The exception is the central Plains. Here it’s hot, in the 90s to near 100 degrees and it’s on the 4th the next heat wave begins to set in.

For all of next week and into the following week, the second full week of July, if you live in the Mississippi Valley or the Great Plains, it’s gonna be hot. Period. Your long hot summer will be here to stay. Typical conditions west of the Rockies and normal to just a touch below normal in the Northeast US. Typical heat and humidity in the Southeast US… nothing unusual for this time of year.

And whatever happened to Bonnie? The Hurricane Center screwed up on this one, BAD. They’ve been issuing advisories on this most of the week now and no tropical storm. It will hit Nicaragua and Costa Rica tonight and tomorrow morning. It will indeed become a tropical storm and probably a hurricane next week in the eastern Pacific. There, the name will not be Bonnie, as names from the Atlantic do not carry over into the Pacific, and vice versa.

Not sure what updates I’ll be able to get out over the 4th of July weekend. For now, have a safe holiday and I’ll catch up with y’all next time I’m able to. By the 4th at the latest.

Rich