-
You may be familiar with the Saffir-Simpson scale for rating the strength of hurricanes. It is based solely on wind speed and does not include other hazards from tropical systems like flooding rain and storm surge. A scientist at the University of South Florida and her team think the time has come to create a…
-
The National Hurricane Center is posting an area with a 70% chance of development in the next week in the central Atlantic. However, every model I have seen indicates the storm, which is likely to be named Gabrielle, will turn to the north and will not affect the Southeast except the possibility of some high…
Posted in: Tropical weather -
The latest ENSO discussion was released today. It shows that we are close to a transition from neutral conditions to a La Nina in the next couple of months. A La Nina is 71 percent likely to be present in the October-December period. That could mean warmer and drier conditions in the southern part of…
Posted in: El Nino and La Nina -
The latest Drought Monitor, released this morning, shows that abnormally dry (D0) conditions expanded across a lot of the region and moderate (D1) drought appeared in central and northern Virginia as well as expanded in Alabama this week due to the lack of rain. The only place where drought decreased was along the East Coast…
Posted in: Drought -
The latest 7-day QPF map shows that no rain is expected for most of the region in the next week. The only exception is Florida and areas immediately next to the Gulf and Atlantic coasts, which could see some scattered showers. Most of the rain will be associated with a stalled front located across the…
Posted in: Climate outlooks -
Earlier this week we were watching an area of disturbed weather called Invest 91L in the Atlantic Ocean moving westward towards us. However, a combination of Saharan dust and wind shear have effectively destroyed the cluster of storms before they could develop tropical characteristics and it is no longer expected to become a tropical storm.…
Posted in: Tropical weather -
What do mesonet operators do when they are not out in the field maintaining equipment? Just like everyone else, we go to meetings! For mesonet operators, we learn more about how to measure the weather accurately, do quality control on the data, and provide it to our users in an effective way. This article from…