Rainfall of significance is over, and thankfully so. Many area rainfall totals checked in between 4″ and 7″ and while significant, the overall forward motion of Gordon’s remnants moved much quicker than forecast guidance suggested, ultimately limiting flooding issues from being even worse.
Today we’re left will overcast skies, patchy drizzle at times, gusty winds, and MUCH cooler air. In fact, the majority of our Sunday will be spent in the 50s. In case you’re wondering, November 1st is the “average” first day with a high in the 50s- 59° to be exact.
Patchy drizzle is possible through the day, but significant rainfall is over.
Temperatures will remain steady in the upper 50s for the majority of the day.
High pressure will return to open the work week. We’ll still likely deal with more clouds than sun on Monday, but as high pressure builds directly overhead Tuesday, more in the way of sunshine will return. Temperatures will be very pleasant through the first half of the work week- lows in the 50s and highs in the 70s.
All eyes will shift to Florence by midweek. She’ll likely go through a period of significant strengthening on her journey closer to the southeast US coast with a potential landfall along the Carolina coastline Thursday. There’s still time to watch things unfold, but confidence is increasing on a potential major hurricane making landfall later this week.
Unfortunately, the upper air pattern and lack of a steering current would lead to Florence either stalling out or “meandering” around the mid-Atlantic region for potentially several days…
Meanwhile, back here on the home front, our fall-like early week feel will transition to warmer times as we move into late week and next weekend. Highs in the mid 80s will return with lows in the mid to upper 60s.
I. Slow-moving showers and thunderstorms will begin to dissipate this evening and tonight with the loss of daytime heating. Some area rain gauges have already picked up between 0.50″ and 1″ of rain this afternoon and this will only serve to lay the ground work for further problems moving forward.
“Transitional period” summarizes this timeframe. The upper ridge begins to retrograde during Week 2, but it’s still a warmer than average pattern. It’s a rather dry pattern, as well.
Craving a more “fall-ish” regime? The model says you’re in luck towards the middle of September and would make sense with some of the larger pattern drivers we’re beginning to see behind the scenes. The ridge axis shifts west and allows a cooler than normal pattern to descend into the central part of the country.
Averages begin to fall in more significant fashion as we transition through the month of September. More specifically, average high temperatures of 83° on the 1st fall to 78° on the 15th. Given the looks of the pattern, highs in the mid to upper 80s (and perhaps a couple of 90° days) will likely be common through the first couple weeks of the new month. Overnight lows will remain oppressive, as well.