Hot weekend for RVA
And the drought gets going again
3:30pm Wednesday, June 3, 2026
The heat comes back to close this week and lasts through the weekend. Some showers and thunderstorms are possible on Sunday, then a relatively cooler period returns for most of next week.
Heat builds
There is not much change through Saturday. Days are sunny and nights are clear. The temperatures will progress upward each day — upper 80s Thursday, low 90s Friday, and mid 90s Saturday.
Scattered showers and thunderstorms are expected on Sunday, as some relatively cooler air begins to advance from the north. But we likely reach the low 90s before those showers and thunderstorms develop.
Trying to find rain
In their wake, temperatures will be closer to normal Monday through Wednesday. However, there are still questions about the chance for rain early next week. There are mixed signals about a new — and larger — system forming close to the Virginia or North Carolina coasts on Monday, lingering in place for a few days.
Depending on its precise location, it could send areas of light rain westward toward Richmond before moving away later in the week. However, most of the data keep it just far enough away to bring only some sporadic showers between Monday and Wednesday — not enough to help with the drought.
It would not be a repeat of the Memorial Day weekend, but there is high confidence that next week will be cooler than this coming weekend, regardless of the chance for rain, as the main wind direction in the middle to upper atmosphere will be from the north next week, keeping any big heat away.
Drought outlook
After next week, there is some evidence for those winds returning from the south and southwest during the week of June 15, which would bring the humidity back and introduce a more regular chance for showers and thunderstorms, but it is not the weather pattern we need to bring prolonged drought relief. It would take about 8-10 inches of rain over the next month to truly end the drought, and more like 10-12 inches westward to Charlottesville and Lynchburg.
But for the next week to 10 days, expect the drought to continue or worsen. The respite from a week ago has effectively been erased, and stream flows have dropped below normal for most of the state — with only a few pockets of near-normal stream flow in metro Richmond, the Shenandoah Valley, and the Western Highlands.
The James River through Richmond was at 4.6 feet at the gauging site near Huguenot Bridge on Wednesday, and it will fall about a half-foot through this weekend.
Spring by the numbers
Meteorological spring, which is from March 1 to May 31, was the 2nd warmest on record in Richmond in 2026 — tied with 2010 and 2024. Only 2012 was warmer. Seven of the 10 warmest have come since 2004.
It was also the 9th driest spring on record. That last one drier was in 2006.
Daily weather records in Richmond go back to 1897.
American science on the precipice
I don’t enjoy this any more than you do reading it.
Last week the Office of Management and Budget (OMB), in charge of executing the federal budget, issued a proposed rule that would fundamentally change how federal grant money is awarded in science. The Director of OMB is Russell Vought, one of the architects of Project 2025, and he has already led the unconscionable charge to shut down the world-renowned National Center for Atmospheric Research.
The document with the proposed rule is deliberately lengthy by design, in the hopes that no one goes through the trouble of reading it. However, Dr. Elizabeth Ginexi, a 21-year veteran of the National Institutes of Health and current health science consultant, went through the painfully long document. Her summation is best:
“Since World War II, the United States built the world’s preeminent scientific enterprise on a straightforward principle: federal dollars should fund the best science, as determined by independent experts rather than politicians. Peer review, open competition, and institutional autonomy were the pillars of that system. This proposed rule dismantles all three, simultaneously, government-wide, and binding on every federal agency by October 1, 2026. What OMB is proposing is not a reform of grants management. It is a complete political control apparatus layered over every stage of the federal science funding lifecycle.”
Those of us of a certain age remember when our leaders — of both parties — took pride in American science and its independence from political interference. We remember what happened in the Soviet Union when Stalin took control of science — particularly agricultural science. Crops failed and famine was the result.
There is far more to this issue, and I encourage you to take a few minutes to read Dr. Ginexi’s initial essay and her follow up essay, which highlights how this will go beyond basic science, to include Medicaid, transportation, education, and food assistance:
“Any active grant could be canceled mid-project because it no longer serves ‘the national interest.’ A highway already under construction. A tribal health program mid-delivery. A city still rebuilding from a flood. And every new grant program must align with administration priorities before a single application is even solicited. Entire categories of funding can be quietly discontinued without a public announcement or a vote.”
This is not a joke, this is not a hoax. This is an express lane to an America with poorer people, decaying infrastructure, and more disease. Full stop.
Public comment on this proposal extends until July 13, 2026. My friends at Stand Up For Science have put together a portal where you can contact your Member of Congress and/or submit a public comment. Please take a look.
We are at grave risk of giving away our children’s future prosperity to Asia and Europe. Please take a moment to investigate.
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