September's Still Sultry

Now

Sunny, warm, more humidity. The calendar says fall, but it's still summery in the Washington metro area. By mid afternoon, at least half a dozen official reporting stations in the region had reached the 90° level, including Dulles at 91° (only 1° short of the record). Traditional hot spot Culpeper reached 95°. At 4pm, temperatures of 80°+ blanketed the entire East Coast and even extended into southern Canada. Humidity has also noticeably increased, although the dewpoints in the low 60s or less are not oppressive.

Temperature chart at 4pm today from Unisys

Tonight and Tomorrow

Mostly clear, very warm. Tonight will be mostly clear with lows only down to the upper 60s in the city and the low 60s in the 'burbs. Tomorrow will be sunny, a little warmer and more humid with highs 88-91°.

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

Tropical Topics

The PaBePo's Storm King has suggested that if Jerry was a storm "about nothing", then it should be followed by . . . Kramer! The National Hurricane Center has stuck to the script, however, and named the next storm Karen. As of the 5pm advisory, the new tropical storm had maximum winds holding steady at 40 mph. Although some intensification is expected, it is not likely to reach hurricane strength. The storm is quite far south in the eastern Atlantic, but its expected more northerly track could keep it away from all land areas.

An Air Force flight this afternoon was investigating the area of showers and thunderstorms in the southwestern Gulf of Mexico. Satellite images this morning indicated that this may be developing into a tropical depression.

In the ongoing search for the new Hurricane Center Director, the Miami Herald's Martin Merzer reports today that interim director Ed Rappaport has taken himself out of the running for the top spot.