9/11

Good Thursday all-

First and foremost, I will be forgoing my 'weather history' fact today in honor of those lost on 9/11. There is no event in history of greater importance in our nation, and I want you all to remember that instead of some random weather event from so many years ago. That said...

Today is going to be a rather unpleasant day indeed. Highs are going to be near 80 with high humidity. To make matters worse, finish your outdoor plans early, as it is going to pour this afternoon with strong thunderstorms likely as we continue to move forward into fall with a cold front. In fact, we shan't reach 80 again...for a really long time, if we do again this year! We won't even be close over the next week and, on some days, temps will even struggle to reach 70! The best chances for rain come Saturday night, Monday, and Tuesday.

In the Atlantic- Two key areas to watch- one is located east of Florida, and another is a tropical wave near the Cape Verdes. The one near the Cape Verdes will almost certainly develop, but really it isn't going anywhere to concern ourselves with as it poses no threat to land whatsoever for now. Meanwhile, the one nearer to home is going to move west across Florida and enter the Gulf, where there is a 30% chance of it developing.

In the Pacific- Tropical Storm Odile is located 240 miles S of Manzanillo, Mexico, and rapid intensification is forecast to bring Odile to near major hurricane status in a few days. To make matters worse, it is like that Tropical Storm Polo and Tropical Storm Rachel are also going to form quite soon in the next few days. Additionally, next week off the coast of Mexico, more development is possible, but by then it may be Tropical Storm Simon! Importantly, if Polo forms today, we would be on pace to tie or break the record for the all-time most active hurricane season here, established in 1992. Unlike the Atlantic, the Pacific list actually does have names for U, X, Y, and Z, they just alternate every two years instead of the usual six. If the name list is exhausted, we would go to the greek letters (Alpha, Beta, Gamma, Delta, Epsilon, Zeta, Eta, Theta, Iota, Kappa, Lambda, Mu, Nu, Xi, Omicron, Pi, Rho, Sigma, Tau, Upsilon, Phi, Chi, Psi, and Omega). This did happen in the Atlantic once (in 2005, when there was a Tropical Storm Zeta).