While the chance of thunderstorms hasn’t disappeared completely, the overall weather pattern will begin to calm down as a low pressure center just offshore fills and lifts out of the area. For Friday, cool temperatures will remain (topping out in the upper 70s) with morning clouds helping to squelch strong thunderstorm development, but partial clearing in the afternoon may allow enough heating to allow a few pop-up afternoon thundershowers. Temperatures begin to warm slightly on Saturday as the airmass slowly begins to dry out, factors which will offset each other to give us about a one in five chance of an afternoon thunderstorm, with even less chance of that on Sunday.

Yesterday I mentioned I tried sitting in a car left in the sun. How dangerous is this? I left the car less than an hour later with sweat sodden clothes, flushed skin, and the beginning signs of heat exhaustion. But a small child or infant faces a far greater danger. Their small bodies and under-developed cooling defenses cause them to overheat three to five times faster than a full-grown adult. While I tried to relax during the experiment, a small child will likely start to struggle once he or she begins to become uncomfortable, accelerating the rise of their core body temperature. You have something else going against you inside a car. The humidity rises very quickly because the evaporating sweat and moisture from breathing has nowhere to go. Higher humidity reduces the evaporation, and thus the cooling effects of sweating.