One Fine Day II: Records in Jeopardy

A bright September sun and southerly breezes are helping temperatures rebound nicely to near 80 from this morning's chilly lows (55 at National, 47 at Dulles). For an explanation of why I was too conservative by 5 degrees at National and 3 degrees at Dulles, and to see who did better, check out the comments from yesterday's post.

What would normally be a typical early-fall cold front has history-making potential tomorrow, since we are approaching the end of September with official total rainfall of 0.10", vs. the all-time low of 0.14" in 1884. (Memo to Topper: I went scurrying back to the database when you said 1934 on the 11pm report last night, but that was the year of the WETTEST September, 17.45". Since we don't make the big bucks here at Blog Central, we do our own fact-checking.)

Tonight and Tomorrow

I'm not going out on much of a limb by saying that tonight's lows will NOT be as cool as last night's, mainly in the low 60s. Tomorrow is trickier, since it depends on the timing of the passage of a new cold front, one that is strong enough to produce some frost in the upper Great Lakes in the early morning hours. The model guidance indicates frontal passage ("fropa") in the early to mid afternoon, so depending on the amount of cloudiness and whether or not there is some rain associated, the high might not make it beyond the mid 70s. The latest model run this afternoon keeps the heaviest precipitation north of the Mason-Dixon line (over half an inch in western Pennsylvania), but around 0.1" is indicated for the DC area. This amount is not enough to save any lawns, but it would spoil the chance of breaking the 121-year record.

Tropical Beat: Atlantic Still Quiet

Tropical junkies are having withdrawal pains from another day without an advisory. The "special feature", a tropical wave/low pressure area now in the western Caribbean is looking more ragged today, and the scheduled reconnaissance flight was canceled. The National Hurricane Center still sees some potential for this to become Tropically Depressed, so the flight was rescheduled for tomorrow morning. There are now only 2 days left to break the 1933 record for earliest 18th storm.

Broadcast News: Entertainment or Business, You Be the Judge

You may recall about a month ago (on Katrina's birthday, as it happens), we linked to a Harper's Magazine online article which quoted from the transcript of a presentation by a Weather Channel executive on dress and appearance of On-Camera Meteorologists (OCMs). This issue is the subject of an age-discrimination lawsuit by former TWC meteorologist Marny Stanier. ABC News has posted an Associated Press article which describes the latest developments in the case. On Monday, the judge raised the question of whether TWC is entertainment or a business. If it's entertainment, then he said they would be able to discriminate in the same way a movie studio, for example, can hire only 19-year-old actresses. TWC's lawyer claimed that firing Stanier was "simply a way to free up money for future investment." From a view of the faces who have been hired in the last few years, it seems that the future investment has been in younger talent.