Shower activity has been limited on Saturday thanks to drier air aloft sliding down over the region as we continue to be sandwiched between the upper level high to our west and a weak area of low pressure to our east.
This upper level pattern looks to remain in place the next several days causing our weather to stay pretty much the same.
That means Sunday will start off with mostly sunny skies before clouds quickly build during the afternoon with a few growing tall enough to produce a brief passing shower or storm.
As for temperatures highs will top out in the upper 80s to lower 90s depending on how much sun your town gets and if you receive a pop-up shower during the afternoon to help cool things off.
What we will have to watch is if the upper level high starts to inch a little closer to us that could send us a shortwave sparking off a few more showers or storms, so I am going 30-40% on the rain chances for Sunday afternoon.
For the first half of the work week we will have a typical August pattern with highs in the lower 90s, partly sunny skies and a decent chance (30-40%) for hit or miss showers and storms during the afternoon/evening.
By the second half of the work week high pressure looks to build in the Gulf dropping our rain chances down to just 20% while temperatures will be heating up into the low to mid 90s with heat indices climbing back into the triple digits.
In the tropics things look to be calming down as the disturbance we were watching by the Lesser Antilles is beginning to encounter a decent amount of upper level wind shear which is weakening the system.
The National Hurricane Center is now giving the disturbance just a 20% chance of development over the next 5 days.
Also, most long-range models are not showing much development to occur in the Atlantic over the next 7-10 days.
In the Pacific Tropical Storm Erick has now pushed west of the Hawaiian islands and will continue to weaken as it moves out into the cooler waters of the Central Pacific.
Tropical Storm Flossie still has sustained winds of 50 mph but it is also expected to weaken as it slides off just to the north of the Hawaiian Islands by early next week but could still bring heavy rains and high seas to several of the islands.
Lastly, Saturday afternoon Tropical Depression 8 strengthen to become Tropical Storm Gil with 40 mph sustained winds but this system is forecast to encounter unfavorable conditions and will dissipated in the next 48-72 hours over the open waters.
