top border

Please note, not all links may be active. This site is a snapshot of an earlier time.

Tropical Tuesday

Steve Scolnik @ 4:00 PM

Temperatures reached 90 degrees through most of the Washington metro area by mid afternoon today, but clouds knocked the readings back to 89 at several locations at 3pm, including National and Dulles. The remains of Dennis, centered in southern Illinois, continued to dump heavy rain around the confluence of the Ohio and Mississippi Rivers. Meanwhile, what was probably once an outer rain band of Dennis was producing a broken line of showers and locally moderate thunderstorms from the eastern panhandle of West Virginia southeastward past Charlottesville and Richmond to the far northeastern corner of North Carolina. As this area moves north and east, it could bring some showers or thunderstorms to the metro area late this afternoon or evening, especially south and west of the Beltway.

Outlook

After a 30% chance of showers or thunderstorms this evening, tonight will continue humid with lows in the mid 70s. Tomorrow, partly sunny skies will keep high temperatures to the upper 80s, with a 40% chance of afternoon or evening showers and thunderstorms.

Tropical Topics: Dennis' Damage, Emily Emerges

Although not as devastating as Ivan last year, the damage from Hurricane Dennis continues to be assessed. The BP oil company reported today that its Thunder Horse semi-submersible drilling platform in the Gulf of Mexico was listing at an angle of 20-30 degrees after the storm. The platform, which was not scheduled to go into production until late in the year, had been evacuated before the storm. It was estimated to have cost $1 billion.

Emily, which became a tropical storm at 11pm last night, continues to move westward in the Atlantic at about 20 mph. Maximum sustained winds are 50 mph, with potential for strengthening to hurricane force before reaching the Windward Islands. At 5pm, a hurricane watch was upgraded to a hurricane warning for Barbados...Grenada...the Grenadines...St. Vincent...and St. Lucia. The extended forecast track takes Emily remarkably close to Dennis' track between Jamaica and Cuba this weekend, aiming toward . . . the Gulf of Mexico.

Following in Emily's wake are 2 tropical waves. The one along longitude 36W has isolated moderate showers and thunderstorms. The wave along 27W has a low pressure area centered near 14N; it has some isolated strong showers and thunderstorms. The National Hurricane Center expects little development through tomorrow.

Comments are closed for this archived entry | Link | email post Email this post