Eyes On Isaac
Despite its ragged appearance crossing Cuba today, Tropical Storm Isaac will be churning into an environment favoring steady strengthening over the next couple days. In fact, upper level conditions may become ripe for rapid intensification in the eastern Gulf of Mexico. Clearly, Isaac is of no concern to New Englanders but the storm is becoming an increasing threat along the Gulf Coast primarily focused on an area between the Florida locations of Panama City and Pensacola. The potential certainly exists for at least Cat2 Hurricane striking in this region. It is possible that the threat may be shifted westward to include Mobile Bay over to Gulfport, MS. For additional information, logon to the National Hurricane Center.
Meantime, except for a brief interruption, the weather here will remain docile for a long time. With that said, there is an approaching cold frontal boundary which will trigger some scattered showers and boomers Monday night into Tuesday morning. The frontal passage may not occur until later Tuesday afternoon but most of the support for convection will precede it by 6-12 hours. Prior to any of that action, it will be more of the same over the next couple of days with varying amounts of clouds and sunshine. A low pressure area swirling over VA is spinning some showery weather into the Mid-Atlantic States with the attendant clouds blowing off and streaming into New England from time to time. Consequently, the sky will continue to look milky at times with the passage of some of the high cloudiness but the rain-producing clouds will remain south of the area tomorrow then gradually spike up into NY and possibly western New England on Monday. Expect high temperatures in the lower to middle 80s away from the ocean with upper 70s maximum at all of the beaches tomorrow and mainly south-facing beaches on Monday. The humidity will be steady bordering on the moderate range with the dew points oscillating from the upper 50s to lower 60s. The humidity will temporarily become high on Tuesday then drop to low late Tuesday night through Wednesday and much of Thursday. Like last night, there could be some areas of fog along the coast and in the interior valleys later tonight but the coverage should be less than last night. Overnight lows will be primarily in the 60-66 range next couple nights.
Looking ahead, as Isaac weakens and cranks out flooding rains in places over parts of Dixie, we will experience hotter weather streaming in from the Midwest at the end of this coming week on the last day of August and the first few days of September. Can you believe that meteorological fall begins a week from today? Despite that, it could be nudging or exceeding 90 on that day!
Joe Joyce delivers his AccuWeather Forecast in the morning and I shall follow later in the day.
ENjoy the rest of the weekend.
