Saturday WX Outlook ...

"Weather forecast for tonight: dark. Continued dark overnight, with widely scattered light by morning."

George Carlin

Today: A 40 % chance of showers and thunderstorms, mainly after 11am. Mostly cloudy, with a high near 92. West-southwest wind between 6 and 13 mph.

Tonight: A 20 % chance of showers and thunderstorms before 2am. Mostly cloudy, with a low around 73. West-southwest wind between 4 and 7 mph becoming calm.

Scattered thunderstorms are forecast today. Isolated damaging wind gusts will be possible with the strongest storms.

Temperatures in the low to mid 90s will combine with dew-points in the low to mid 70s to produce heat index readings between 100 and 105 degrees today.

Today's pollen level: 3.8-Low Medium (on a scale of 1to12): predominate pollen: Grass and Oak.

Forecast Details: mid to upper level heights will rise today as ridge amplifies ahead of approaching trough. Deep west-southwest flow regime will push another surge of moisture in off the gulf. PW values are expected to increase up to around 2.25 inches by this evening. Not much upper support today but moist/unstable airmass should result in scattered thunderstorm coverage, starting in our western Zones and spreading east during the afternoon. Thickness and 850 temperatures will be on the increase today and temperatures will soar into the 90s most areas. In fact the warmest temps (mid 90s) are expected along the East Coast. Even the beaches likely to hit 90 today due to absence of Atlantic sea breeze. Mix in dew-points stuck in the low to mid 70s and heat index readings will top out between 100 and 103 degrees. This kind of heat and humidity will result in high cape and a few strong to possibly severe thunderstorms will be possible, especially later in the afternoon as Gulf sea breeze/outflow boundaries move east into increasingly unstable airmass. Damaging winds will be the main concern.