“Surely you can’t be serious”

Robert Hayes to Lesley Nielsen in the 1980 comedy, Airplane

“Yes, I’m serious…and don’t call me Shirley.”

–Lesley Nielsen’s deadpanned response

9:35 PM EDT 7/24/2011 Despite the never-ending story of the 2011 heat wave, one of the coolest thing going on the East coast wrapped up this evening. The 2011 Dew Tour / Pantech Open, sponsored by AlliSports is among the most popular and widely viewed BMX and Skateboarding Competition of the summer and winter. The kickoff event of this summer was hosted in style by Ocean City, Maryland - the only Atlantic coast venue of the 4 city schedule. Although rain dampened the 4:00 PM coverage by NBC Sports, the weekend was an overall success in terms of limited weather interruptions and the inspiring spectacle of a giant half-pipe like reviewing stand right on the beach in Ocean City.

The Dew Tour  is classic “fusion forecasting” for our Maryland Team. Our high school and college student forecasters have been covering the event since early this week in our “Bayshore” zone for Eastern Maryland & Delaware, titled as such because it covers a land area that extends from the Bay…to the Shore.  If you are heading to the Maryland or Delaware beaches anytime soon, you can count on our team to provide locally relevant forecasts for popular destinations along the DelMarVa, the Eastern Maryland counties along the Chesapeake, and our friends and colleagues across Delaware. 


Shirley, we are serious. 

A glance at the long range temperature pattern shows a high probability that above normal temperatures will once again own the much of the U.S. in the July 29 to August 2 period. As Forecast Advisor Keith Krichinsky said in the Saturday 7/23 Carroll County Times of central Maryland, "Hot conditions, in the 90's, are expected to continue at least through the end of July."

From a short-term climate pattern perspective, one indicator our team tracks, known as the North Atlantic Oscillation (NAO) is currently in a "rising trend." This permits tropical air to surge much farther north than usual. After August 1, the NAO is projected to turn sharply negative, which may lead to cooler air masses being introduced to the U.S. from Canada by mid-month.