As Baltimore residents wake up this Thursday morning, they might find the weather less than agreeable. A frontal zone has been playing tug-of-war with the region, but it's finally made a decisive move towards the southeast. This shift is fostering a return to cooler, cloudier conditions, with a mix of drizzle and passing showers driven by a persistently saturated boundary layer. Those in Baltimore should brace for a slower-than-usual rise in temperatures, with the lack of sunshine playing the chief culprit.
A particular watch-out for today is Hurricane Erin, which, as per the National Weather Service Baltimore MD/Washington DC, is expected to come closest to St. Mary's County this morning before moving away from the western Atlantic in the evening. Folks in the area will feel the hurricane's presence through a pickup in northerly winds, which the Weather Service predicts could gust up to 25 mph or even higher over water.
Looking beyond today's damp and blustery conditions, there's a slice of a silver lining for Friday and early Saturday. A weak high-pressure system is moving in, pushing the mercury back into the upper 70s to low 80s and cutting humidity down a notch. This short mitigation in the atmospheric drama will offer mostly sunny skies and a reprieve from the wetter, cooler conditions, at least until the next cold front arrives Monday.
And speaking of that next system, sailors might want to keep their boats docked. Today's conditions out on the water have prompted the National Weather Service to put a Small Craft Advisory into effect through early Friday for many Maryland zones, including Annapolis and the southern waters. With Hurricane Erin's tangential effects and an approaching cold front, the marine situation seems primed for caution. Residents in Annapolis are also looking at moderate coastal flooding through Saturday, an unfortunate encore to today's weather narrative.
For those looking ahead to Sunday, be prepared for the possibility of showers and thunderstorms as a strong upper trough rolls in, bringing instability and a juicy pre-frontal airmass with it. The Weather Service warns that some of these storms could pack a punch, so it's worth keeping an eye on the sky. Come Monday, assuming the front keeps to schedule and heads out of town promptly, locals can expect drier, sunnier conditions closing out the weekend's stormy bookend.
