Breeze and cool down on the way...

Good afternoon! Yesterday an amazing dust storm known as a 'haboob' rolled through the Phoenix Metro Area dropping the visibility down to about 300 feet in some areas and knocking out power to some 20,000 residents. This was caused by a thunderstorm in its weakened state, creating strong winds blowing down to the ground and than outward from the thunderstorm. These winds picked up dust as seen in this video below:



We may see some winds and dust here in the Mid Columbia, however not anything this spectacular. We'll look at this and much more after yesterday's report and the pollen forecast...

	Yesterday	Average	Record
High temp	94F	90F	105F
Low temp	50F	58F	44F
Precipitation	0.00"	--	0.88"

And now here's the pollen forecast for the Tri-Cities from ...
Saturday: 7.2 (Medium)
Sunday: 5.7 (Medium)
Monday: 5.1 (Medium)

So yes, winds are expected to pick up tomorrow ahead of a cold front that will drop our temperatures about 10 degrees, however tomorrow will still be above 90 with low humidity therefore raising the fire danger. I advise you against having an open fire tomorrow, especially in the desert areas outside of town. Also, some dust might make its way into our area tomorrow evening. Also, it would not surprise me to see a stray thunderstorm in our area tomorrow.

And now lets take a look at whats going on across the nation from our national affiliate Foot's Forecast:

A ridge over the Southwest and Lower Plains will continue to bring high temperatures and storms from the Desert to the Texas/Oklahoma region.. This energy will move eastward into the Great Plains over the next day or so. Another front will produce showers and thunderstorms across the Southeast into the Mid-Atlantic. A third system, stretching from the Great Lakes up into Canada might produce Severe Storm into New England. Air Quality is an issue in several Western urban areas, as well as along the I-95 Metroplex from Baltimore to NYC. Conditions that produced the Dust Storm in Arizona yesterday may…may…be repeated tomorrow.
NWS- Mid-West Flood Update: Since July 2, several more levees have been overtopped and/or breached along the Missouri River. At this time, all non-federal levees upstream of Kansas City in the Kansas City District Corps of Engineers area of responsibility have been overtopped and/or breached. Missouri River runoff above Sioux City, IA for June 2011 set a record of 13.8 million acre feet. This is the highest monthly runoff ever for the period 1898 to 2011. The runoff above Sioux City for May and June 2011 combined is 24.3 million acre feet. This is nearly equal to the average yearly runoff for the entire Missouri River.

There is a Red Flag Warning in effect for Benton, Franklin, Walla Walla, NW Umatilla and N Morrow Counties.