Goodbye, Gabrielle

Now

Mostly sunny, hot, muggy. It's another hot and muggy afternoon in the Washington metro area with temperatures in the upper 80s to some low 90s and dewpoints generally in the upper 60s. Except for some very isolated activity on the Eastern Shore, showers and thunderstorms on radar are mainly confined to southern West Virginia. If no precipitation falls before midnight, it will be the 15th consecutive rainless day.

Tonight and Tomorrow

Warm, muggy, chance of showers. Warm and muggy conditions will continue overnight, with a 40% chance of showers or thunderstorms. Lows will range from the low or even mid 70s downtown to some upper 60s in the 'burbs. A stalled front in the region tomorrow will result in a partly sunny, muggy, day with a 40% chance of showers or thunderstorms and highs 84-87°.

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

Tropical Topics

Statistically, today is the average peak of the hurricane season, but there are no active storms in the Atlantic basin other than the departing Tropical Depression Gabrielle, which is accelerating eastward a couple of hundred miles south of Nantucket. The storm had maximum sustained winds of 35 mph as of the 5pm advisory.

Except for a tiny corner of coastal North Carolina, the drought-busting potential of Gabrielle was significantly under-achieved. Persistent northerly shear and very dry air to the west kept most of the precipitation offshore as the storm was more of a sandblasting event for much of the Outer Banks. The darkest blue on the NWS Precipitation Analysis map represents 0.25-0.5" of rain, and the lighter blues are less.

In breaking news on the bureaucratic front, ousted Hurricane Center Director Bill Proenza is reported this afternoon by the Florida Sun-Sentinel to be getting his old job back as Director of the NWS Southern Region.