Sixes Wild, Rain on the Way Return of the Nino?

Now

Cloudy, cool. No less than 6 out of the 10 local NWS Regional Roundup stations were reporting temperatures of 66° at mid afternoon today; the other 4 were a few degrees higher. After some very light rain (trace at National, 0.02" at Dulles) early this morning, skies are overcast throughout the area with rain on regional radar mainly south of Richmond.

Tonight and Tomorrow

Rain, cool. The chance of rain will increase from about 40% through midnight to near 100% by tomorrow morning. Rain or showers are likely to continue through early afternoon. Lows tonight will be in the low 60s, highs tomorrow in the low 70s.

For the outlook through Friday and the weekend, scroll on down to Dan's post below.

Tropical Topics

Storm Eight remains tropically depressed, with top winds of 35 mph as of 5pm, continuing to move away from the Cape Verde Islands. It is still expected to become a hurricane as it turns more northwestward this weekend.

A tropical storm warning is in effect for much of coastal eastern and southern Newfoundland from Post-Tropical Storm (Tempete Post-Tropicale) Florence. The major impact was being felt on the southern coast this afternoon. Some power outages were reported in St. John's as the storm moved eastward, brushing by Cape Race.

Photo of wind and rain in St. John's NL today from CBC

El Nino Returns?

NOAA issued an unscheduled El Nino advisory today, announcing that increasing Pacific Ocean temperatures in the last 2 weeks have led to a weak El Nino condition. This event is expected to continue into 2007, and it has the potential to become moderate this winter. Expected El Nino effects this winter

include warmer-than-average temperatures over western and central Canada, and over the western and northern United States. Wetter-than-average conditions are likely over portions of the U.S. Gulf Coast and Florida, while drier-than-average conditions can be expected in the Ohio Valley and the Pacific Northwest.