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Over the course of the day Potential Tropical Cyclone 19 formed and gradually organized into Tropical Storm Sara. Sara is predicted to move west over Honduras, where it could drop 20 or more inches as it crawls slowly westward into the Yucatan Peninsula and then swings northwest as a weakened storm into the Gulf. A…
Posted in: Tropical weather -
This was a week of haves and have-nots for soil moisture in the Southeast. An area of very heavy rain (6-10 inches in some areas) in southeastern GA and adjacent parts of SC removed drought from that portion of the region. The rest of the region experienced almost no rain and as a result, moderate…
Posted in: Drought -
The Atlantic tropical season is not over just yet. The National Hurricane Center has identified another area with a 90% chance of development in the next week in the western Caribbean Sea where tropical cyclones typically develop in late fall. If it develops as expected, it would be called Sara. The storm is expected to…
Posted in: Tropical weather -
The latest monthly climate summary for the United States for October 2024 was released yesterday by NOAA’s National Centers for Environmental Information (NCEI). It shows that October was the second warmest October since records began in 1895. In addition, a record 87% of the contiguous US was in drought or abnormally dry, including most of…
Posted in: Climate summaries -
The latest 7-day QPF map shows very little rain for most of the Southeast this week. Most of what does fall will drop this weekend, with lower amounts early in the week and no rain at all expected late in the week. This is likely to cause the Drought Monitor status to get worse again…
Posted in: Climate outlooks -
Hurricane Rafael has crossed over western Cuba and entered the Gulf of Mexico, but is tracking westward across the Gulf into areas that are less favorable for supporting the storm. Rafael is not expected to affect us in the Southeast other than its push of moisture into the region associated with this week’s heavy rainfall.…
Posted in: Tropical weather -
The latest Drought Monitor, released today, shows that abnormally dry conditions have expanded to cover nearly all of the Southeast except the Florida peninsula this week due to the continued lack of rain through Tuesday, the cutoff period for the latest map. Drought conditions got worse in Alabama as well. Next week we may see…
Posted in: Drought