Hurricane Floyd still a fresh memory after 15 years

Hurricane Floyd, although it was a Tropical Storm by the time it reached our area, left a lasting impact on much of the United States East Coast. Although the memories of many in our area are fogged by the tremendous damage from Hurricane Sandy, Floyd brought it’s own slew of effects 15 years ago today. The storm left an incredible amount of flooding in New Jersey — and while high winds and beach erosion weren’t major concerns –multiple deaths and millions of dollars in damage occurred.

Unlike Sandy the main story with Floyd was, as aforementioned, heavy rain. The storm developed in the Atlantic several days before impacting the United States East Coast and then strengthened into a hurricane. Eventually, Floyd peaked as a Category 4 storm as it struck the Bahamas. The storm then began to turn northward and eventually began interacting with a mid level system from the Central United States into the Ohio Valley. Similarly to Hurricane Sandy, the phase between these two systems tugged the Tropical Storm toward the Mid-Atlantic coast.

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Pictures, videos of Hurricane Odile slamming Mexico

Hurricane Odile slammed into the Baja Peninsula this weekend, tied for the strongest hurricane ever to impact them in recorded history. The powerful storm was packing sustained winds of 125 miles per hour with with higher gusts as its center passed extremely close to Cabo San Lucas on Sunday Night. The storm has weakened today, but is still churning northwestward. Over the next few days, it will turn eastward as a result of mid level interactions in the atmosphere — and bring the potential for historical rains to parts of the Southwestern United States — Nevada, Arizona and New Mexico.

Pictures and videos of the devastation from the hurricane’s impact along the Baja Peninsula are being posted, submitted and shared at an increasing volume this afternoon. Some of them are compiled below — and we’ll continue to add them as we receive them over the next few days.

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Weekly Overview: Pleasant fall week ahead

Another Monday morning is underway, which means it’s time for our weekly overview post! It is our hope that these posts can get you through the struggles of the next few hours at work. The weekend is a memory now — so it’s time to start talking to your coworkers or friends about anything good that happened, and well past the time to start forgetting about anything else. Anyway — a fast past weather pattern remains underway for this upcoming week — except this time, we’ll be on the good side of it, with only one brief chance for showers on Tuesday afternoon. Otherwise, the weather looks extremely pleasant. Temperatures will still be a hair below normal, with highs in the 70’s and cool nights.

Express-Cast 

Today: Sunny, highs near 70. | Tonight: Partly cloudy. Lows mid 50’s.

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PM Roundup: Increasing clouds, dreary Saturday

The big cold front came through last night and gave way to an absolutely gorgeous Friday, as temperatures rose into the mid to upper 70s with very low humidity and crystal clear skies. However, this is about to change, as a storm system will be developing throughout the evening, and affecting us tomorrow. The culprit is a rigorous system in the middle of the atmosphere pushing through the Great Lakes, which will help create copious lift for precipitation. Ultimately, the storm system will not become a truly organized Nor’easter, so we do not expect much in the way of heavy rain. But the fact that we have a storm system that will not be relying on convection leads us to have relatively high confidence in periods of rain throughout the day tomorrow. That being said, the lack of surface organization creates some uncertainty as to whether we will get around one tenth of an inch of rain, or closer to a half inch.

Today's 18z NAM showing a period of light to moderate rain throughout the area tomorrow afternoon.

Today’s 18z NAM showing a period of light to moderate rain throughout the area tomorrow afternoon.

Tomorrow morning doesn’t look too bad — just cloudy with occasional sprinkles. Most of the rain should fall during the afternoon. Gradual clearing should commence tomorrow evening, as temperatures fall into the 50s in most locations, and perhaps into the 40s in some suburbs. Sunday looks to be a gorgeous day, with temperatures rising into the mid 70s and plenty of sunshine. Sunday night into Monday morning looks to be the chilliest night of the season; here is the forecast from the 12z GFS — though the model is probably a bit chillier than reality.

In addition to the coming cold temperatures, here are some other interesting links in the world of weather:

1) Recent solar flares have led to the potential of the sighting of the Aurora Borealis. The X-Class Solar Flare reaching Earth too early may reduce our chances to see it, however. For more information, check out our recent article giving everything you need to know. 

2) A weak tropical wave is beginning to form just off the coast of Florida. The eventual strength of this system is very uncertain, though a major hurricane is unlikely. Here are some of the latest forecast tracks by some computer models. 

3) While this El Nino has not progressed as forecast, and will most likely not be a super strong one, there are signs that it may just be delayed, but not denied. The Climate Prediction Center shows how warm water continues to build just below the surface of the Equatorial Pacific, which may emerge to the surface. This could allow waters to warm enough to get an El Nino back on track.

Have a great weekend, everyone!