Bad Hair Day

5:20 Update: Some bright sun is now breaking through here north of the Beltway in MoCo.

Now

Cloudy, damp. The heavy rains of this morning have been replaced this afternoon by a drizzle, heavy at times, which is hard to pick up on radar but is very noticeable on your glasses if you go out walking in it. National picked up a very respectable 1.73" of rain by 11am, and Dulles had 1.34". This means that in the last 5 days the total precipitation has already exceeded the average amount for September by over 0.6". Temperatures in the mid 60s and dewpoints to match have put the relative humidity near 100%, and fog has been very prominent in the Live Shot to the right. Here at Afternoon Blog Central in MoCo, however, the sky has been brightening quite a bit in the last hour or so.

Tonight and Tomorrow

Gradual dryout. Drizzle and possibly a shower or two should taper off overnight. Lows will be near where they are now in many places, mainly in the low 60s. Tomorrow will see gradually decreasing clouds and highs in the upper 70s.

Tropical Topics

TD 6 was named Florence as of 11am this morning. It was a minimal tropical storm with top winds of 40 mph; winds have increased to 45 mph as of the 5pm advisory. Florence is notable at this point for being rather large in area. This means that it will be slow to develop, but with favorable conditions, it could develop into a major hurricane, as some models are now suggesting. The expected track puts it well east of the Bahamas as a hurricane this weekend.

Photo of TD 6 around 7am this morning from NOAA GOES satellite, via NASA GSFC in Greenbelt.

"I Want My TWC"

If you couldn't find The Weather Channel at the usual channel 30 spot on Comcast Montgomery analog cable this morning, it's been moved to channel 98. The move is part of a large game of musical chairs to make room for MASN coverage of the Nats, along with the extra $2 a month being added to your bill as a result. Comcast's own CN8 news/entertainment channel is replacing News Channel 8. Among the other moves: banishing HBO from channel 38 to digital only. Comparable changes are also being made in the digital channel lineup and on other Comcast systems.