DC afternoon weather: May 19, 2026 | Near record heat Tuesday followed by midweek storms

Added: 2026-05-25

[00:00:00]WUSA 9 weather [music] impact is sponsored by Morgan and Morgan. Good Tuesday afternoon, I'm meteorologist Caitlin McGrath. We are in for another hot day with temperatures heading back into the mid-90s with mostly sunny skies and feels like temperatures that'll be a few degrees even warmer than that. Not exceptionally humid, but just enough to add a little bit of a heat index factor to the forecast. Now, as we head throughout the evening, there is a low chance you could see an isolated shower or storm. Just when it's that hot and you get that touch of humidity, especially as the sea breeze kicks in this afternoon, not going to totally rule out an isolated shower or storm, but many areas will be dry for today.

[00:00:37]So, temperatures heading back up to about 96° in DC and Gaithersburg, 97 from Leesburg down into Manassas, 94 in Front Royal, mid to upper 90s for Andrews. So, we are going to be close to record territory once again. I think we will at least tie the record in DC. Kind of depends how the wind acts this afternoon, if we get a little bit of a cooling effect coming off the river, but forecasting 96 and the record is 96 set back in 1997.

[00:01:06]Dulles, once again, I think it's kind of a no-brainer for a record. Yesterday, the record was 91. We beat it by 4°.

[00:01:12]Today, the record's only 92. So, that is a pretty low record and we're forecasting around 96°. The record will likely stand in Baltimore at 98 with a forecast only of 95 as we head throughout the day today. Now, here we are right around 3:00. Again, an isolated shower not totally out of the question. Could see an embedded thunderstorm as we head toward about 6:00, 7:00 this evening. So, if you are out and about, maybe you want to grill tonight, just keep that in mind, but look at all the folks that are dry with no issues for today. Tomorrow, little bit of a different story. We'll start things off nice and sunny Wednesday morning, dry through midday. It's going to be another hot one as well with temperatures back in the low 90s, but then as we head throughout the afternoon and especially into the later evening hours, we've got some scattered showers developing kind of by mid-afternoon, but then later at night, 5:00 6:00, more widespread showers and storms do develop as a cold front starts to push through the area. So, the second half of the Wednesday evening commute likely going to feature some rain and storms. We'll probably issue a weather impact alert for this because if a lot of folks are out and about, we are going to have quite a bit of rain as we head through Wednesday night. Now, this is right around 9:00, still tracking some of that storm activity. And there is a low chance for severe weather tomorrow, especially for those earlier storms that pop between about say 4:00 and 8:00. But then once we lose the heating of the day, while we will still have some of those downpours, the risk for severe weather will go down pretty substantially. And then that will kind of kick off a really unsettled stretch of weather. Thursday morning we'll have more showers around that stick around through the morning commute and even into the afternoon. This is 12:00, widespread light to moderate rain. As we head throughout the day on Thursday, still tracking rain into the afternoon.

[00:02:54]And then we should start to see that batch of rain clear out later Thursday night, but the rain continues as we head through the end of the week and into the holiday weekend. So, tomorrow again, going to be a nice day to start. We'll have nice sunshine around, temperatures back in the 90s. And if you like the summer heat, this is going to be your last day for quite some time to enjoy it. Now, humidity will be a little bit more noticeable, so temperatures will feel slightly warmer than they actually are once again. And then we'll track those showers and storms developing throughout the afternoon as this cold front again pushes through. However, doesn't clear the area, and that's what's really going to set us up for this really unsettled stretch of weather. We'll have the cold front draped just off to our south and east as we head through Thursday, still around on Friday. And that's going to kind of allow these little waves of low pressure to track right along it and bring in those prolonged rain chances as we head through the end of the week and weekend.

[00:03:46]It's also going to keep our temperatures much cooler, especially Thursday and Friday.

[00:03:51]And then as we head into the weekend that cold front kind of lifts a little bit north as a warm front that will bring our temperatures back closer to average especially as we head through Sunday. Sunday into Monday are looking like the drier days of the extended forecast. They're still not rain free but I think you'll have more opportunity to hopefully get outside and enjoy some weekend plans especially for the holiday on Monday but keep in mind even when it's not raining it's still going to be overcast. Temperatures will be below average for the weekend and then start to warm up as we head into next week.

[00:04:21]And this is next Tuesday that front is still nearby keeping rain chances persistent. So as we head through the next several days we see the most most shower activity start to pick up Wednesday through Friday. Though Saturday right now is looking fairly wet. Again there will be some dry hours but still going to be overcast and cool and then we'll start to taper off the more widespread showers as we head through the start of the weekend to more scattered showers Sunday Monday and into Tuesday could also mix in a few storms for Memorial Day. So keep that in mind if you do have outdoor plans you're trying to squeeze in. As far as temperatures go we're back in the 60s as we head through Thursday into the start of the weekend but then again Sunday into Monday our temperatures do start to warm up. Low 70s for Sunday mid to upper 70s on Monday but overall does not looking like a great weekend for outdoor plans and we know so many folks do have the long holiday weekend. As we head through the extended forecast temperatures do stay generally around average for the second half of next week. So enjoy the sunshine today just keep in mind that isolated shower or storm threat. We have the Nats at home tonight and I think the game will be just fine if anything a brief rain delay if an isolated shower or storm pops up and then Wednesday once those rain chances move in Wednesday night they are with us for the rest of the 7-day forecast.