Heavy Rain Likely Flood Watch in Effect

**Flood Watch in effect 7PM tonight through tomorrow morning.**

Now

Cloudy, seasonable Clouds were lowering and thickening this afternoon ahead of a massive storm system centered over the upper Midwest. Moderate to heavy precipitation is indicated over southern West Virginia late this afternoon. Despite the cloud cover, temperatures were over 50° for the 3rd consecutive day, following the coldest February since 1979 and the 15th coldest since the beginning of official Washington records in 1871. February's total snowfall of 5.9" at National was above the 30-year average by 13%.

Today's high/departure from average: National 52°/+2, Dulles 51°/+1, BWI 50°/+1

Tonight and Tomorrow

Rain developing, moderate to heavy. Rain will develop over the region this evening from southwest to northeast, becoming moderate to heavy at times; scattered thunderstorms are possible. Lows will be in the upper 40s. Rain will end in the morning tomorrow with some clearing in the afternoon and highs in the upper 50s.

For the outlook through the weekend and beyond with Larson's Long-Range, scroll down to Josh's post below.

Blogosphere Climate

The ClimatePolicy blog was launched today by the American Meteorological Society's Policy Program. It is intended to "discuss a wide range of topics that span scientific understanding, impact assessment, policy analysis, and the value judgments that shape people’s policy preferences" related to climate change.

Mediarology

The Weather Channel's foray into prime-time infotainment continues with the debut of a new series, "Epic Conditions". The show, which features extreme outdoor sports, premieres Sunday at 9pm with an episode on extreme skiing at Steamboat. Media Daily reported last week that the new program will be replacing "Storm Stories" in the weekday schedule this fall.

MediaWeek reported Monday that new research shows significantly higher ad recall rates for the Weather Channel than USA Network or HGTV.