As Good As It Gets

Now

Beautiful! Clear skies, warm temperatures, low humidity, and a light breeze have combined for a nearly perfect spring day in the Washington metro area. Unfortunately, that's as good as it's going to get for now as wintry temperatures stage a comeback by the weekend. Temperatures by mid afternoon were generally in the 80s, although an easterly breeze kept National and Quantico in the mid 70s.

Tonight and Tomorrow

Increasing clouds, showers developing. Clouds will increase tongiht with lows in the low to mid 50s. There is a 50% chance of showers overnight. Showers are likely tomorrow morning, but clouds will decrease during the afternoon with highs in the mid 60s, falling late in the day.

For the outlook through the rest of the week and weekend, scroll down to Jason's post below.

Tropical Topics

The updated Klotzbach-Gray statistical hurricane season forecast was released today at Colorado State. The outlook is similar to the earlier one from AccuWeather, but without the Bastardi Bombast. As the result of a rapidly weakening El Niño, it calls for a more intense season than the forecast originally made in December. The current expectation is for the following (long-term averages in parentheses): 17 (9.6) named storms, 9 (5.9) hurricanes, 5 (2.3) intense hurricanes. The probability of a landfall by at least one major hurricane is: 74% for the entire U.S. coast, 50% for the East Coast (including Florida peninsula), and 49% for the Gulf Coast.

Political Science

Yesterday's Supreme Court ruling against the EPA's position on greenhouse gas regulation was widely covered in the press, both the dead-tree and silicon-based versions. In the WaPo, it rated both a Page A1 lead position and an editorial. The WaPo's Bench Conference legal blog has a rundown of links to the usual suspects. Whether this court action leads to any real world action, of course, remains to be seen.