Ophelia Pain

A high pressure area centered near the Washington DC region covers most of the eastern 2/3 of the country. Lawns are feeling the pain of the 15th consecutive day without measurable rain in the area. Temperatures at mid afternoon are in the mid to upper 80s, with dewpoints in the pleasant mid to upper 50s.

Tonight and Tomorrow

Tonight will be clear with lows around 63 in the city to near 60 or the upper 50s in the outlying areas. Tomorrow will be similar to today, but with temperatures a few degrees warmer, highs near 90, and a little more humid.

Tropical Beat

After making a small clockwise loop, Ophelia was downgraded to a tropical storm this morning with max winds of 70 mph. It is lumbering off to the northwest at 3 mph as of 5pm. Water vapor images show that dry air from the high over us is not only suppressing convection to the north, but it is even working its way around the southern portion of the storm as well. The track is still very uncertain, but the most likely scenario is for the center to graze the Outer Banks and then proceed back out to sea. The "pear" of uncertainty for the 1-3 day track includes southern Maryland and the Eastern Shore. The "Tropical Storm Force Experimental Probabilities" put DC just on the outer edge of the 20-30% probability of tropical storm winds for the 5 days from this morning through 8am Saturday.

The Katrina Channel

• Both Time and Newsweek have extensive analyses of Katrina's aftermath this week.
• The U.K. newspaper the Independent has an article discussing the environmental impacts based on an interview with Hugh Kaufman, "an expert on toxic waste and responses to environmental disasters at the US Environmental Protection Agency (EPA)".
  
• Reuters has just reported at 3:30 that FEMA chief Brown has resigned.

Planet Hollywood

Among the movies scheduled to be released this fall (October 28) is "The Weather Man", starring Nicolas Cage as a TV weatherman. Here is the plot summary from the Internet Movie Database:

"Dave Spritz is a local weatherman in his home city of Chicago, who lives with his wife and kids. Despite being both loathed and loved by the local masses, Dave is a guy who doesn't seem to have it all together and he feels it. But an attractive job offer has one unlikely thing: to relocate to New York City. Despite all the advice his seemingly has it together father and a neurotic wife, Dave has to make a big decision that not only will affect his life but his family's as well."

Michael Caine plays Cage's father. The official web site contains the usual assortment of trailers and clips, as well as downloads of wallpapers and screen savers; AIM icons are "coming soon." Cage fan sites CageFactor and Cage by Page contain additional news items.

Real Boston TV weatherman Todd Gross, who owns domain weatherman.com, has this to say after viewing the trailer:

In the upcoming movie The Weatherman starring Nick Cage, a weatherman that appears to be a non-meteorologist works two hours a day and seems to more or less "wing it' from what I have seen of the trailers. In real life, hundreds of hard-working meteorologists are struggling with pages and pages of data to give you the BEST possible forecast and beat out the competition.

The Chicagoist reports that the film will close the Chicago International Film Festival on October 20.