The next several days will be chilly and unsettles as a pretty strong low pressure system moves into the region and takes up temporary residence. On Friday high temperatures will crash into the upper 50s with a chance of scattered showers and thunderstorms. After a brief break Saturday morning, storms return in the afternoon and will stick around off and on through the next several days. Highs gradually warm back into the 60s over the weekend and should make back to the low 70s by mid-week.

Yesterday, I mentioned that Ozone is one of the main summertime pollutants. While ozone is a good thing to have in our stratosphere (it blocks dangerous UV radiation), it is an irritant to breathing down here at the surface. Ground level ozone forms primarily from reactions between two major pollutants: Volatile Organic Compounds (VOC) and Nitrogen Oxides (NOx). VOCs come from gasoline pumps, chemical plants, and auto-body shops among other sources. NOx is emitted from cars, power and industrial plants. Sunlight is needed to stimulate the reactions between these compounds, and therefore it is more prevalent in the summer months when there’s more sunshine.