It will be a beautiful day across the region Tuesday, with low humidity, but the muggy weather will return by mid-week. Temperatures will climb into the 90's with hot and humid conditions by Thursday and Friday. There is no relief in sight from the very dry weather.
“Very, very dry air,” said Jim Mitchell, National Weather Service Meteorologist at the Buffalo Weather Station in Cheektowaga. Mitchell tells WBFO News the drought will continue. Very dry air and lack of moisture is preventing any weather system from provided enough rain.
“Even fronts that approach our area, some of the moisture tends starts to dry up before it gets toward our region just because the ground is so dry, it helps evaporate the moisture,” Mitchell explained.
But with very dry grounds, heavy rains could cause flashing floods. That's what happened over the weekend in Ellicott City, Maryland, captured on video by citizens, where in just three hours more than five inches of rain fell causing devastating flash floods.
“If you get a real heavy downpour in a quick period of time the ground doesn’t really saturate, it just basically acts as a big parking lot. Very hilly terrain, so places like Southern tier where you’ve got deep valleys and terrain that can actually funnel the water, that’s where you would have more danger, it’s just typical with flash floods and also urban areas because it’s the same idea – you don’t have anywhere for the water to do once the sewers fill up,” remarked Mitchell.
The only chance of ending the drought by the end of August would be a 'tropical system', but for now Mitchell tells us that front remains ‘quiet’.
