Weather Warms After Showers Subside

Now

Mostly cloudy, muggy, scattered showers. Following yesterday's storms which affected some parts of the area much more than others (see the rainfall map below), clouds and some showers have persisted today ahead of a cold front working its way southeastward through the Ohio Valley. National Airport, which eked out only 0.03" yesterday, picked up 0.11" in a heavy shower between 2pm and 3pm. Temperatures around the region are generally in the upper 70s with very humid dewpoints of 69-73°.

Scattered showers and some thunderstorms are likely through this evening as a line of storms now in southern Pennsylvania moves southeastward. Tomorrow, we clear things out and begin a warming trend. For the detailed outlook through the weekend and beyond, scroll on down to Josh's post below.

Rainfall Report

Where you stand on yesterday's storms depends on where you sit. While areas from southern Frederick Co. through Howard Co. and most of the immediate Baltimore metro area got nice soakings of ½" or more (shades of green), the amounts tailed off sharply to the south. Nearly all of the areas inside the DC Beltway got less than ¼" (lighter shades of blue), and there was virtually nothing south of Fairfax Co. in VA and central Prince George's Co. in MD.

Experimental precipitation map for 24 hr. ending 8am this morning from NWS

Bureaucratic Brouhaha

Considering that National Hurricane Center directors traditionally have come from within the ranks of the Center staff, the Proenza controversy (see "Havoc at the Hurricane Center" in Dan's post from yesterday) seems to be taking on at least some of the aspects of a bureaucratic food fight. Meanwhile, NOAA HQ is quoted as saying that the special assessment team currently evaluating the situation at NHC has nothing to do with Proenza's previous statements. Two Florida members of Congress, however, are questioning that assertion. Would you like an order of fries with that bridge you're buying, Admiral?

Wunderground hurricane blogger Jeff Masters weighed in last night with his opinion on Proenza's QuikSCAT satellite concerns. He concludes that "NHC official forecasts for landfalling storms in the Atlantic would not be significantly affected by the loss of the QuikSCAT satellite." On the other hand, Masters does strongly support Proenza's legitimate concerns regarding budgets for research in particular and the Hurricane Center overall, especially in light of NOAA's PR focus on brand identity and anniversary celebrations.

Mediarology: Earth Comes Alive on 07/07/07

The Weather Channel will be providing coverage of the Live Earth concerts on Saturday. Coverage begins with reports on "Abrams and Bettes" and "Evening Edition" Friday night and continues with live broadcasts from Giants Stadium on "Weekend View" Saturday morning (7-11am). "Forecast Earth" (Sunday 5-6pm) will take a broader look at Live Earth and the environmental issues it represents.

Widespread coverage is also scheduled on NBC and its affiliated networks. The NBC main network will have coverage from 8-11pm. Bravo will have coverage from 9am Saturday through 2:30am Sunday, Sundance will run from 4am Saturday through 2am Sunday, MSNBC will have periodic reports throughout the day, and CNBC will be on from 7pm Saturday through 2am Sunday. Some coverage will also be available on Telemundo and Univision.

Live streaming will be available on MSN. Radio broadcasting will be provided by both XM and Sirius.