Area forecast discussion National Weather Service Baltimore Maryland/Washington District of Columbia 936 PM EDT Wednesday Jun 19 2013 Synopsis... high pressure over the Great Lakes will build into the middle- Atlantic tonight then move offshore through the end of the week. High pressure will remain offshore over the weekend...then a cold front may approach during the early to middle portion of next week. && Near term /through Thursday/... Coastal Flood Advisory was issued...see tides section below... Previous discussion... cumulus field will continue to diminish early this evening with the exception of the central foothills of Virginia. An upper level trough axis is currently stretched from the Long Island Sound down to SW Virginia and will continue to push eastward overnight. Showers and isolated thunderstorms have formed this afternoon in Nelson...Albemarle...Augusta Virginia in response to a weak cold front that stalled...slightly higher dewpoints and trapped instability. Activity is expected to cut off in the next hour or so but middle level clouds will persist into the morning for the central foothills. Radiational cooling will occur for areas outside the clouds overnight with min temperatures dropping to the low to middle 50s. Patchy fog is possible for isolated areas mainly west of the Blue Ridge mountains High pressure will move to our NE Thursday and sunshine and calm southeast winds are expected. In the higher elevations...foothills and western slopes...models are depicting low level convergence. Forecast soundings depict steep lapse rates and moisture in the middle levels. Showers and isolated thunderstorms are possible for these areas. Severe is not expected. && Short term /Thursday night through Friday/... high pressure remains off the coast on Friday. Friday looks to be a similar day to Thursday...with mostly sunny skies and a small chance of afternoon convection firing over the mountains. Temperatures will moderate to near normal. && Long term /Friday night through Wednesday/... high pressure remains off the coast over the weekend...with moisture gradually increasing on southerly flow. There may be more clouds later in the weekend...but weak forcing means that any diurnal convection may still be relegated to the higher terrain. Temperatures are expected to warm to above normal this weekend...with maxima near 90 on Sunday. Warm weather is expected to continue into early next week. There are signs of high pressure weakening and shortwave energy affecting the area at some point in time. There is some uncertainty with regard to timing...so will stick with HPC 20-30 probability of precipitation during this time. && Aviation /02z Thursday through Monday/... clouds will continue to diminish tonight with the exception of cho. Scattered to broken middle level clouds will continue at cho this evening. MVFR stratus possible at cho early Thursday morning...otherwise VFR for the valid taf period. High pressure will bring mostly quiet weather this week and weekend. && Marine... high pressure builds in late tonight and then moves off the coast for the end of the week. High pressure looks to remain offshore over the weekend as well. Am not expecting Small Craft Advisory conditions during this time. && Tides/coastal flooding... tidal anomalies will continue to rise through the next few days as southeasterly winds continue. Current anomalies are less than a foot but expected to rise to 1 to 1.5 feet overnight and into Thursday morning. A coastal Flood Advisory was lifted for the Maryland portion of the Chesapeake Bay. && Lwx watches/warnings/advisories... District of Columbia...none. Maryland...coastal Flood Advisory until 9 am EDT Thursday for mdz007-011- 014-017-018. Virginia...none. WV...none. Marine...none. && $$ Update...Sheffield