Say hello to Erin. Say goodbye to Baltimore's longest heat wave with temperatures of 90 degrees or higher. Probably.
Remnants of the hurricane -- which tore across Florida, killing at least four, into Mississippi, then northward -- began affecting the Baltimore region yesterday. And more is to come.
The first sign of Erin locally was a band of at-times severe thunderstorms that began yesterday afternoon and that weather forecasters said should end the 25-day streak of above-90 degree temperatures.
"It'll be just a few degrees cooler, but you won't feel the pain you have with temperatures in the 90s," said Bob Melrose, a National Weather Service forecaster at Baltimore-Washington International Airport.
Don't break out the sweaters yet, however.
Mr. Melrose said that although the city's most persistent heat wave is probably history, today's temperatures are expected to top out in the mid- to upper-80s, with more of the same tomorrow and Tuesday. The air is expected to be muggy, the breezes slight and the sun, well, in abundance.
"It's still summertime," Mr. Melrose said.
He said that as Erin continues her push northeastward -- a slow process that should end by tonight -- severe thunderstorms are a possibility, as they are in Erin's wake from Tennessee to New York. Thunderstorms accompanying the former hurricane have dumped as much as 4 inches of rain in parts of Ohio, and severe thunderstorm watches were posted from northern Virginia into Pennsylvania.
But when Erin's gone, watch out.
Mr. Melrose said Central Marylanders can expect mercury back into the 90s again by midweek.
Yesterday afternoon's rash of thunderstorms -- which triggered a string of minor traffic accidents, cut power to more than 32,000 and toppled trees -- caused temperatures to plunge from an afternoon high of 98 to a positively chilly 77 in less than two hours.
A slightly more severe replay of yesterday's weather performance is a "strong possibility" today, Mr. Melrose said.
