Weather! Zombie tropics and the Watermelon Festival forecast

Tropical Storm Colin has been quite indecisive. It fell apart Tuesday, and the National Hurricane Center began issuing advisories a second time on Thursday. It’s not going to be a threat to land, but if you’re planning on heading to Bermuda in the next 48 hours, you might want to rethink your plans. (Also, if […]

August 6, 2010; 2:55 PM • by Weather Dan

Tropical Storm Colin has been quite indecisive. It fell apart Tuesday, and the National Hurricane Center began issuing advisories a second time on Thursday. It’s not going to be a threat to land, but if you’re planning on heading to Bermuda in the next 48 hours, you might want to rethink your plans. (Also, if you’re heading to Bermuda anytime soon, I fit well into suitcases.) Colin will likely kick up some waves on the East Coast until it passes, so if you have beach plans, enjoy the surf and watch out for surfers.

How about those thunderstorms? While I’m sure it’s been a bit unsettling, especially for those with skittish animals and/or small children, and those still without power (10,000 according to Dominion at 1pm), it’s been great for the region’s drought. Here’s the latest look at the Drought Monitor:

Most of the eastern third of Virginia is now under a severe drought. The rainfall this week has helped put a small dent in it, but we need some pretty continued rainfall over the next couple weeks if it is going to abate at all. The storms on Wednesday and Thursday brought us a total of 1.31”, more than we received in all of June. We’re at 1.66” of rainfall so far this month – more than we received in either June or July, but still over 6” short for the year and over 5” short since June 1.

It’s Friday afternoon as I’m typing this, and the airport temperature is sitting right at 90 degrees. The cold front that passed through the area and served as trigger for yesterday’s storms is crossing near the area . Highs this afternoon should climb into the low 90s, marking the beginning of a trend that should last through the weekend. There’s a tiny chance of storms this afternoon; certainly nothing as organized or as severe as yesterday, but the chance still exists. Lows tonight should fall into the upper 60s.

For Saturday, clear and warm will be the story, as temperatures will again climb into the low 90s. Overnight lows will fall into the low 70s. More of the same for Sunday and the Carytown Watermelon Festival, with highs in the low 90s and lows in the low 70s. Though humid, the chance of rain either day is virtually nil.

There’s another area of interest in the Atlantic. I’ll have an update on that and the forecast for the beginning of the week on Monday.

August 6, 2010 2:55 PM 0