Swampy Air

A stationary front is stopped at the Mason-Dixon line and Virginia is in the swampy air, the humidity soup.  While 76 degrees might be considered cool(ish) for a summer morning it does not feel cool, more like you have been caught in someone's exhale, and they are standing too close. When the sun breaks through the cloud deck, and that could be awhile, things will heat up quickly today and that will fire off more showers and storms similar to yesterday.
And, there were lots of storms and showers around yesterday and few of them, once formed, moved much. Stalled storms leads to inches of rain and that leads to flooding, flash in many cases and watches and warnings were posted all over the piedmont yesterday, and already filled creeks and saturated ground will likely bring out more warnings today: turn around, don't drown.
The tirehouse was never really in the storm zone yesterday, showers only and that was exactly what my largish patch of recently bared ground needed. 4 hours or so of fairly gently rain totaling 0.61 inches, perfect. The zones with stalled storms received upwards of 3 inches, easy to imagine that leading to flooding! Today, being a new day and the same as yesterday only in very general ways, will likely drop copious rain in new places, miss some altogether and deluge a few spots that heavy storms have already soaked. Once there is plenty of groundwater, trees with their transpiration and evaporation, in general, work quickly to build clouds back into storms which then redeposits the water, the water cycle. Today is just waiting for the sun to pop out and crank up the cycle again, be alert, could be another wild one.
Storms and clouds do not, however, lead to good sky viewing and that was certainly the case yesterday and there will likely be more of the same today. The moon, very close to full and quite bright as darkness falls, will backlight the clouds and may pop through as clouds thin occasionally but there is not much chance for planet viewing tonight. Friday, the last of July, will probably be the next chance for a good look at the sky and the full moon will wash out all but the brightest stars, the planets, being close and bright will shine through.
In shake and eruption news, aftershocks continue in the Aleutians Isles after Monday's big quake and nearby Redoubt volcano is likely ready to blow, or is already in full on eruption, as the area was just rocked with a 6.3 quake. Moving liquid rock creates earthquakes, too. Redoubt, a regular member of the active volcano list will likely be back on the list which comes out later today. Otherwise a fairly quiet quake day, so far.
Here in the mid-Atlantic, we are in for two more swampy days before a big cold front, kicking off more storms, comes through the area late Thursday. It won't drop the temps too much but has little moisture and will increase the comfort level dramatically; low dew points, morning temps down in the 60's and no swampy feel. Until then, get out and figure out a way to deal with swampy, that's what the story is, Today on Earth.