Talk about hot! Temperatures bounced into the low 90s today across central Florida, as a light westerly wind held the sea breeze at bay for all but the immediate coast and a high pressure ridge permitted only pancake flat cumulus clouds in the sky. Overall, it was a gorgeous, albeit steamy, Friday afternoon with lots of sunshine and seasonably hot temperatures. It was (and still is as I type this at about 7:30pm Friday) a much different story for our friends to the north!

What's known as a "ring of fire" ridge of high pressure aloft extends from the west coast all the way to the east coast this evening and will remain more or less in place through the middle of next week. Just like weather changes came slowly late last week and earlier this week (see the slow-moving Debby for proof of that), this latest weather pattern will be very stubborn to break as what we call the North Atlantic Oscillation remains in an unusually strong negative phase for this time of year. That means the heat is going nowhere fast. A sampling of some 7pm temperatures:

• Atlanta and Macon, GA: 103
• Athens, GA: 104
• Richmond, VA: 100
• Saint Louis, MO: 104
• Washington, DC: 96 (after an all-time June record high of 104!)
• Philadelphia, PA: 96
• Nashville, TN: 106

On the northern periphery of the ring of fire, across parts of the Ohio Valley, a cluster of powerful thunderstorms is charging eastward and will bring the potential for severe thunderstorms late tonight into some of the very areas that saw triple digit heat today (the Mid Atlantic). Also on the northern periphery of the huge heat ridge is fire-stricken Colorado; the ridge will likely remain strong enough to prevent any significant rainfall for that state for days to come. There are hints some monsoonal moisture from the Gulf of California could lift north into the state after July 4th, but that's a big "if."

Here in central Florida, we are on the southern periphery of the "ring of fire," good enough to keep us essentially dry through the middle of next week but not enough to push us into record territory. Even though our flow will be out of the west at the surface, it will be light enough that sea breezes will develop. Further, aloft -- not much above the ground -- the wind is easterly and to get the hottest of temperatures in our area you really need a westerly wind through a pretty significant depth of the atmosphere. Also, there is still quite a bit of standing water around central Florida as a result of Tropical Storm Debby; some of the sun's energy goes into evaporating this water from the ground -- this is energy that is lost to the heating process.

It will still be hot for us this weekend, make no mistake about that. Temperatures will surge into the low to mid 90s straight through early next week. The next opportunity for rain will come with a weakening front by Tuesday or Wednesday of next week but, even then, it's just a 10% or less chance of rain.

Stay cool!

Brian Monahan