733
FXUS61 KCLE 150741
AFDCLE

Area Forecast Discussion
National Weather Service Cleveland OH
341 AM EDT Tue Jul 15 2025

.SYNOPSIS...
Weak high pressure builds across the area today before it departs to
the east tonight. A warm front will lift north across the area
tonight into Wednesday morning, lingering across the central
Great Lakes region Wednesday night and Thursday. A low moving
across the Great Lakes will bring a cold front south through
the area Thursday into Friday.

&&

.NEAR TERM /THROUGH WEDNESDAY/...
Weak high pressure continues to remain over the forecast area
today, with patchy fog expected early this morning across east-
central Ohio and Northwest Pennsylvania. Any fog that develops
should quickly dissipate after sunrise.

High pressure should move off to the northeast later this
evening into tonight. The stationary front that lingered south
of the area will lift northward as a warm front in response to
an upper-level trough and associated surface low moving into
the Midwest region. Meanwhile, a compact shortwave trough will
move in from the southwest, just behind the warm front. Forcing
from the trough, along with a humid airmass, will initially lead
to scattered showers and thunderstorms very early Wednesday
morning, with storm coverage expanding northeastward through
the morning. As weak-to-moderate afternoon instability builds,
should see coverage of showers and storms further expand,
especially east of a Sandusky-Marion line. PoPs in the 70-80%
range are forecast for Wednesday afternoon.

Substantial moisture will accompany this system, with HREF mean
PWATs peaking in the 2-2.1" range. Climatologically, this is
exceptional, with sounding climatology from PIT/ILN both showing
average daily max values in the 1.95-2" range (so we are above
the typical climatological max for mid-July). Soundings from
the 00Z NAM show skinny CAPE with very moist profiles. These are
good indicators that efficient, heavy rainfall will accompany
thunderstorms. Corfidi vectors vary (5-25 knot range) but are
generally lowest in the early to mid-afternoon, indicating at
least some potential for backbuilding. HREF/REFS have low to
medium (10-30%) probabilities of greater than 3" for much of the
area east of Sandusky-Marion, which is usually a really good
indicator for at least isolated to scattered flash flooding.
With all of these signals, have coordinated an expansion to the
WPC Day 2 ERO to include much of this area in Slight Risk for
Excessive Rainfall. Localize flash flooding is most likely in
the urbanized corridors (Cleveland-Akron-Canton-Youngstown
regions).

High PWATs, modest forcing, and low-medium instability will
likely also support an isolated microburst potential Wednesday
afternoon as well. However, marginal deep layer shear (HREF
mean around 15-20 knots) will likely prevent a more organized
severe weather potential. It is worth noting that the HREF does
have have a few updraft helicity tracks, with 10% contours east
of I-71.

&&

.SHORT TERM /WEDNESDAY NIGHT THROUGH FRIDAY NIGHT/...
By Wednesday night, the primary forcing mechanism (i.e. the
shortwave trough) will make its way east. However, many CAMs
continue thunderstorms with heavy rain and a low flash flood
risk through Wednesday night, mainly in the far eastern extents
of our forecast area.

Most models have the upper-level trough/low that moves into the
Great Lakes region approaching our forecast area on Thursday.
Additional showers and thunderstorms are expected on Thursday
with PoPs in the 70-90% range (mainly for the afternoon), with
the highest PoPs in the southern portion of our forecast area.
It`s likely there is another low end risk for severe weather and
localized flash flooding but the details are a little muddy at
this point as there is a good deal of model spread/uncertainty.

Model consensus is for the cold front associated with the low to
sweep through Thursday night into Friday. Low PoPs remain the
forecast Friday largely due to uncertainty in frontal timing,
but the expectation is for most of the day to be dry, with much
cooler temperatures - high temperature forecast is for highs in
the upper 70s! High pressure will build in overhead Friday
night with good bonfire weather in store.

&&

.LONG TERM /SATURDAY THROUGH MONDAY/...
Cool, quiet weather doesn`t last very long as high pressure
departs to the east on Saturday and we start to build warm,
moist air back into the region behind the departing high,
although certainly not as bad as it has been (we have highs in
the mid 80s with dew points in the upper 60s to low 70s right
now). Scattered showers and thunderstorms return Saturday
evening and Saturday night, with a better chance for areawide
storms on Sunday as a weak low moves across the Great Lakes
region. Its associated cold front is projected to move south
across the area Sunday night into Monday, though this is a day 7
forecast in July, that could very well change.

&&

.AVIATION /06Z Tuesday THROUGH Saturday/...
VFR conditions will continue across most terminals through much
of the TAF period with the exception of this morning between
09-12Z for KCAK, KYNG, and KERI. Conditions will be adequate for
fog development across those terminals with KYNG having the
highest confidence in seeing visibilities down to 1/2 SM. Fog
should dissipate with sunrise, so expect VFR conditions after
12Z today. Additionally, there is some HZ across a few terminals
in western OH bringing visibility down a few miles, but don`t
expect it to create any problems. Ceilings will start to move
in at the end of the TAF period as precipitation moves
northward, but it will not be impactful during the period. KCLE
could start to see showers at the very end of the period
bringing down visibility to MVFR.

Winds will be light and variable across all terminals through
this period. There will be a lake breeze for KCLE and KERI
starting by 17Z today that will shift winds out of the north.
All other terminals will be mainly out of the south and
southwest during any sustained winds.

Outlook...Non-VFR will return on Wednesday and Thursday in
scattered showers and thunderstorms. Non-VFR chances may
persist on Friday afternoon and evening in showers and
thunderstorms, particularly across the southern portion of the
area.

&&

.MARINE...
Winds across Lake Erie are expected to be fairly light, less
than 10 knots, with waves less than 2 feet over the next few
days ahead of a low pressure system moving through at the end
of the week. A cold front will cross the region on Thursday and
winds across the lake will increase to around 15 knots out of
the southwest. Waves will build to 2-3 feet with the increased
winds. Additionally, during this timeframe, there will be
widespread thunderstorm chances which will bring the concern for
stronger wind gusts and increased waves across the lake.

&&

.CLE WATCHES/WARNINGS/ADVISORIES...
OH...None.
PA...None.
MARINE...None.

&&

$$

SYNOPSIS...Saunders
NEAR TERM...Saunders
SHORT TERM...Saunders
LONG TERM...Saunders
AVIATION...23
MARINE...23