Updated visual forecast

Here is the updated visual forecast starting on Saturday and ending on Friday.

Severe thunderstorm watch until 9 pm tonight for large hail and strong winds. Watch for hail up to size of golf balls.

Flash flood watch until late tonight for heavy downpours from slow moving severe storms, rainfall rates of 1-2″ per hour. Watch for flooded roads and creeks.

A backdoor cold front is approaching from the northeast, this front will trigger some scattered severe thunderstorms tonight until about midnight. What in the world is a backdoor cold front? Sounds like a computer virus, doesn’t it? It is basically a cold front that is moving in an atypical direction that a traditional cold front would. Backdoor cold fronts move westward and sometimes southwestward. A line of severe thunderstorms is firing up west of the area near the Potomac highlands. This slow moving thunderstorm complex may move into our area later tonight. Some concerns with this nasty line of thunderstorms is large hail to golf ball size, strong gusty winds, torrential downpours, rainfall rates of 1-2″ per hour and finally copious amounts of lightning per minute. A flash flood watch is in effect until late tonight for the monsoonal type rains we could get in just hours from the slow moving severe storms tonight. Why on Earth are we getting such slow moving storms? This is due to the steering winds in the atmosphere being weak, there is nothing to push the storms along at a decent clip. This event will probably last several hours once it starts. Behind the front tomorrow, cooler conditions follow, but the front gets hung up near the area and showers may linger for most of the day tomorrow. The weekend looks drier and cooler for at least a day or so. The heat will return out ahead of the next traditional cold front perhaps ushering in rain chances for graduation day. Enjoy your upcoming weekend!