As busy as things have been Wednesday, it’s possible that it could get as wild (or even wilder) Thursday as the low pressure center helping to steer the monsoonal flow through our area moves right over us. That will keep our temperatures cool (upper 70s for the valley highs), but will boost the instability to take the already moist air into numerous thunderstorms. Flash flooding and severe thunderstorms are certainly likely to return to the region, but as always, it’s impossible to say exactly where those will occur.

Things begin to stabilize a bit on Friday as the low moves east, and by the weekend there will only be a slight chance of mainly late afternoon thunderstorms.

Continuing yesterday’s talk about the dangers of leaving kids or pets in a car, I decided to see just how fast and how hot a car gets when you shut off the air conditioning and run in to do those “quick errands.” I sat for 50 minutes inside my car out in the mid-day sun. I was monitored by paramedics from REMSA, and placed several thermometers throughout the car. The results were startling. Within two minutes of shutting off the engine (and thus the air conditioning), the car became very uncomfortable. A candy thermometer placed on the dashboard in direct sunlight passed 130 degrees in less than 10 minutes, and would peak soon thereafter at about 170 degrees. Out of the sun, the temperature rise was somewhat slower, but still climbed to over 130 degrees in about a half an hour. Tomorrow, I’ll tell you what that means to your loved ones.