Don’t get me wrong!  Overall, we are looking at some great weather for the next few days.  But it’s not too often that we have a (high) threat for rip currents at the beaches.  So it is a big deal, and it is dangerous.  First though, let’s talk about the setup.  We have a big/strong area of high pressure over us.  The core of it lies to our west from western North Carolina up to eastern Canada.  This feature is what is giving us the fair skies for the entire weekend.  However, to the east of this there are some persistent northeast winds.  The breeze actually feels nice, but it gets a little strong near the shore with gusts up to 25mph.  There will be less wind today though compared to yesterday.

 Those breezes will also push down some cool air (for mid June) with highs in the mid 70s.  The average high is in the low 80s. 

One bad effect will be a high threat for rip currents along the beaches today. 

Remember, a rip current is a strong/narrow channel of water that pushes back out to the ocean.  A swimmer can get caught in this and will either get stuck in one place or will get pushed out to sea.  This is very dangerous.  If you get stuck in this, then you need to swim parallel to shore, out of the current, and then swim back in farther up or down the beach.  For more information on rip currents click here: Rip Currents.  The surf will be up, but be very careful if you are going to go out and hit the waves. 

Usually with a persistent northeast wind we see some tidal flooding.   However, the moon phase is not all that conducive for tidal flooding.  Also, the winds are letting up a little today compared to yesterday.  The tides have been running about a half a foot up to a foot which has led mostly to some nuisance flooding (no big problems).  It is below the minor (level 1 out of 3) tidal flooding threshold, and should stay that way over the weekend.  Stay tuned though as it may come up just a bit higher.  A few inches at the most. 

With all of that said…it should be a nice weekend.  We are looking good for Father’s Day.  Partly sunny with highs in the upper 70s.  A little breezy, but not too bad.  It should be nice weather for the CHKD runwalk as well down at Town Point Park on Saturday.  Have a good weekend!   We’ll warm up quite a bit by the middle of next week with upper 80s coming back into the picture. 

Meteorologist: Jeremy Wheeler