July Discobs 2026

[WxUSAF]

10 minutes ago, snowfan said:

BWI VIS at 2mi. Not a huge improvement.

Just eyeballing out my office window, it had improved a bit around 11am-12pm but has gotten thicker again since 

[SnowenOutThere]

32 minutes ago, WxUSAF said:

Just eyeballing out my office window, it had improved a bit around 11am-12pm but has gotten thicker again since 

Looks like MD has the worst of the plume on vis sat.

[WxUSAF]

11 minutes ago, SnowenOutThere said:

Looks like MD has the worst of the plume on vis sat.

Yeah, northern edge has pushed south into eastern PA and NJ. WV looks relatively clear. But a firehose of smoke pointed right at central MD  

[kgottwald]

Smoke has vanished in Vienna.

[yoda]

Hey Rockingham county, could you share your storms?  Thanks

[SnowtoRain]

8 hours ago, CAPE said:

Yeah that storm popped right over the bay.

Did you see that training line of storms that moved across central/southern NJ? Some 4" amounts in that area.

Yeah saw that. I was wondering if that small storm was going to start training but it just went poof over Caroline/Dorchester.

 

The small storm did seem to be associated with the leading line of the smoke moving south east last night.

[MN Transplant]

38 minutes ago, kgottwald said:

Smoke has vanished in Vienna.

I don't know about vanished.  I just drove into Tysons and it still pretty gross.  AQIs are hovering around 200 in the western Beltway area.

[stormy]

91 at 4:30 is no big deal.    AQI compared to 50 years ago averages in July is also no big deal.

[snowfan]

15 minutes ago, stormy said:

91 at 4:30 is no big deal.    AQI compared to 50 years ago averages in July is also no big deal.

Thank you grandpa.

[stormy]

8 minutes ago, snowfan said:

Thank you grandpa.

Wisdom often comes with age compared to simpletons still wet behind the ears.

Be patient, you will arrive at the wisdom stage much sooner than you think.

[pazzo83]

this sucks

[pazzo83]

54 minutes ago, MN Transplant said:

I don't know about vanished.  I just drove into Tysons and it still pretty gross.  AQIs are hovering around 200 in the western Beltway area.

yeah - i mean vis is a little better, smells gross out though.

[wxmeddler]

The smoke today smells worse than usual. The smoke I remember out west was a straight campfire smell. This smells like campfire mixed with New Jersey (a mix of burning rubber and bad BO). 

[SnowenOutThere]

1 hour ago, stormy said:

Wisdom often comes with age compared to simpletons still wet behind the ears.

Be patient, you will arrive at the wisdom stage much sooner than you think.

I find the argument “I lived through worse AQI and we still had events” so weird. Back then, we didn’t how bad it was for you and it was normalized so of course you held events in air which damaged your lungs, you didn’t know better! Now we do, so correspondingly we cancel. It’s like complaining that people wash their hands because we learned germ theory! 

[ravensrule]

The smell of the gas in Taco Bell’s bathroom is worse than this. Man up. 

[LongRanger]

recent days have demonstrated how smoke vs clean air can lower ground-level air temperatures

[EastCoast NPZ]

Forecast of storms / rain tomorrow already cut down to 60% from 80% this morning.   Another dud incoming.

[Scarlet Pimpernel]

54 minutes ago, SnowenOutThere said:

I find the argument “I lived through worse AQI and we still had events” so weird. Back then, we didn’t how bad it was for you and it was normalized so of course you held events in air which damaged your lungs, you didn’t know better! Now we do, so correspondingly we cancel. It’s like complaining that people wash their hands because we learned germ theory! 

Agree.  Things change, and improved knowledge (and medical understanding/advances) can help save lives and/or keep you from getting sick or adversely affected.  I've never been a fan of the "we never whined about such-and-such and came out OK, now everyone's a wimp!" attitude (when in fact many people did NOT come out so OK).  Yeah, some complaints about "how difficult it is" that I hear on minor or more trivial issues makes me roll my eyes, but in general, I totally get it.

As for the conditions today, it's totally ugly out there.  You can literally smell the smoke and feel it in your eyes and sinuses.  Remarkable how the visibility is notably lowered too.  Thank goodness I didn't have to be out for any length of time in this.  I'm not sure how this compares to a couple of years back when we had a similar event with wildfire smoke that got into this area.  Regardless, it's pretty bad.

[kgottwald]

We couldn't even manage one day with decent dewpoints. IAD up to 70 already. Sheesh.

[Scarlet Pimpernel]

46 minutes ago, ravensrule said:

The smell of the gas in Taco Bell’s bathroom is worse than this. Man up. 

A bit like Andy Dufresne (in "Shawshank Redemption"...one of my favorite films!) crawling through 500 yards of sh*t-smelling foulness I can't possibly imagine!!

[Scarlet Pimpernel]

Now...imagine if it were a large forest of cannabis plants that was burning, how would we all feel? 

[CAPE]

3 hours ago, SnowtoRain said:

Yeah saw that. I was wondering if that small storm was going to start training but it just went poof over Caroline/Dorchester.

 

The small storm did seem to be associated with the leading line of the smoke moving south east last night.

Yeah there was that, but also some drier air moving from NE to SW. That dry line triggered the training storms over Jersey. The cell that developed and moved southeastward over your area could have been related to that, but weaker and on a a smaller scale.

[pazzo83]

IAD did get it's first 80F low yesterday - did LWX make a note about that?  It's pretty insane.  Yes the area has become more urbanized, but still.

[CAPE]

31 minutes ago, EastCoast NPZ said:

Forecast of storms / rain tomorrow already cut down to 60% from 80% this morning.   Another dud incoming.

Yep. My yard is as bad as yours since the beginning of March. I pay no attention to the predictions of an inch or more from NWS/WPC a couple days out, because it is not going to verify. At some point the Nino coupling to the atmosphere will take over and this awful dry pattern will shift- but not likely for another month or so.

[WxUSAF]

Solar power was about 70-75% of what it would have been without smoke

[CAPE]

Just now, WxUSAF said:

Solar power was about 70-75% of what it would have been without smoke

I monitor my dad's solar array and this is exactly the case.

[CAPE]

1 hour ago, ravensrule said:

The smell of the gas in Taco Bell’s bathroom is worse than this. Man up. 

Funny. Also contributing is that they apparently have been serving lettuce tainted by the parasite that is causing long term explosive watery diarrhea. Lovely.

[yoda]

16 minutes ago, pazzo83 said:

IAD did get it's first 80F low yesterday - did LWX make a note about that?  It's pretty insane.  Yes the area has become more urbanized, but still.

Yes, @MN Transplant posted the LWX statement this morning in his "our regions extreme run" thread

[EastCoast NPZ]

16 minutes ago, CAPE said:

Yep. My yard is as bad as yours since the beginning of March. I pay no attention to the predictions of an inch or more from NWS/WPC a couple days out, because it is not going to verify. At some point the Nino coupling to the atmosphere will take over and this awful dry pattern will shift- but not likely for another month or so.

I'll believe that actually happens when I see it.  At this point I have no faith in any El-nino, pattern, or storm to produce even 1 good event here.

[CAPE]

Extreme drought continues here. Updated yesterday. Areas just to my south in the same category have had 3" more than me in the past week, so this seems to be lagging. My area might actually be Exceptional, or those areas should be reduced to Severe.