Yesterday it was the warmth, today it’s the humidity. Mother Nature is finding all sorts of ways to prevent the crisp, autumn air from filling into Hampton Roads.
It’s the minor price we pay for living by the Atlantic ocean and the Chesapeake Bay. Being surrounded by water, our air temperatures and weather are heavily influenced by it. So our afternoon highs in the 70s today are misleading – they’re not the crisp, pleasant 70s but more so the humid, moist ones, all because of the breeze.
This time of year the water across the Chesapeake Bay and Atlantic Ocean is still pretty warm. Buoys are reading temperatures in the mid 70s, and when there’s a persistent ocean breeze out of the north & east, the air temperatures will be held to the water temperature. It’s also holding our dew points in the mid/upper 60s. So while the 7-day forecast shows a stretch of afternoons in the 70s, it comes with the humidity.
Another way to tell how the air feels is to look at the morning low temperatures. With the moist, humid ocean air filling in across the next few days, the overnight temperatures won’t drop much further than the upper 60s.
The ocean breeze not only holds us in the 70s through the end of the week, but keeps things unsettled. So anticipate more clouds into the weekend with isolated showers around. Rain chances will increase by the weekend as a disturbance to our southeast drifts to the north.
