hoping harder

They aren't taking the thunderstorm chances out of the forecast, they have actually increased them. The $64,000 question is just how far to the east the low-pressure trough will be able to push, because there is a big ridge of high pressure in the east. That precipitation forecast graphic has an awfully narrow line
separating nothing-much quarter-inch rains from substantial two to four-inchers. And just where that transition falls will make all the difference.