WEATHER
We’re less than two weeks from the autumnal equinox, but central North Carolina’s weather shows no sign of breaking out of summertime mode. Fog and low clouds this morning will slow down today’s warmup, but the sun will break through by midday. Temperatures will hit the mid to upper 80s this afternoon.
Yesterday’s humidity was dreadful. While today’s mugginess will be noticeably lower, it will still be…well, noticeable.
Temperatures tonight will drop to the mid to upper 60s, with some patchy dense fog possible again.
The hot weather really settles in tomorrow and Thursday — Wednesday’s highs will reach the upper 80s and low 90s.
Factor in the humidity, and it will feel like the mid 90s Wednesday afternoon.
Even hotter on Thursday — we’ll be close to record territory!
Scattered thunderstorms on Friday will crack the worst of the heat wave, but temperatures will remain well above-average through the weekend and into next week.
The weekend rain chances don’t look like much to worry about, but they’re not zero either. Just be flexible with outdoor plans, especially in the afternoon and early evening.
TROPICS
Today is the statistical peak of the Atlantic hurricane season — and we’re tracking a few areas of disturbed weather. Fortunately, none of them are showing strong signs of becoming better-organized.
The one that’s closest to any populated areas is just north of the Dominican Republic and Haiti, and is forecast is track to the west-northwest over the next few days. That will bring it through the Bahamas (before any development occurs) and maybe through the Florida Straits into the Gulf of Mexico. The National Hurricane Center estimates a low 20% chance that it becomes a tropical depression over the next 5 days.
There are two more systems way out there in the tropical Atlantic — one has a 30% chance of becoming at least a tropical depression as it heads west toward the Caribbean through the weekend.
The other just emerged off the west coast of Africa…while it has a low chance of developing over the next 5 days, the long-range data is more enthusiastic about this one’s potential to strengthen beyond that time frame. We’ll keep a close eye on everything, of course…
LINKS
- Looking back at Hurricane Dorian…it was dangerous enough as it approached the Bahamas. Then it practically stopped. (This article was written before the storm traveled along our coast last week.)
- A final brief records/stats reports update on Hurricane Dorian is now available.
- This just keeps getting weirder: The Secretary of Commerce threatened to fire top employees at NOAA after after the NWS Birmingham office (correctly) refuted President Trump’s claim that Hurricane Dorian might hit Alabama.
- And now, NOAA chief scientist to investigate agency leaders for violating its scientific integrity policy in backing the president’s Dorian comments over the agency’s own experts.
- In Australia, dozens of fires are burning across Queensland and New South Wales, torching homes and fueling fears of a particularly bad wildfire season.
- India’s space agency lost contact with its Vikram Moon lander during the final few minutes of its descent late last week.
- The orbiting HiRISE camera caught a landslide on Mars as it was occurring.
- Scientists think that Nessie (the “Loch Ness Monster”) could actually just be a giant eel.
- Decades after the Dead Sea Scrolls were discovered in desert caves, the ancient manuscripts are still offering surprises.