Month: September 2011

More Rain…..

by meteorology

More rain over the next 18 hours or so, with most locations getting 1-2 inches, although a few places could get as much as 3 inches. The ground is already saturated so the NWS has issued a flood watch (again).

Things will start to improve somewhat on Saturday, although it should remain fairly cloudy with a few stray showers. It is starting to look like Sunday should be a decent day, however…..Partly sunny and in the 70s. It should be quite muggy throughout the weekend with summer like dewpoints in the mid 60s.

Even though there will be improvement over the weekend things will not completely clear out until later next week. There is an upper-level low pressure system which is “cut-off” from the jet stream out over the midwest. This low will continue to spin up surface lows over the eastern U.S. for several days until the jet stream finally dips far enough south to grab hold of it and pull it away.

So, even though there will certainly be dry periods and even some sunny periods there will also be a few periods of rain and showers through Wednesday. It will remain quite warm and humid for this time of year as the counterclockwise circulation around the cut-off low brings warm humid air up from the south (along with the showers).

Rain, rain, go away!

by meteorology

It’s finally over (for now). BCC’s weather station has recorded 17.88 inches of rain in the month between August 8 and September 8. That is about 40% of the annual average in ONE MONTH. Ouch!!

We received the bulk of this rain (but certainly not all) from Irene and the remnants of Lee.  5.14 inches was recorded with Irene, however, there was a gap in the data due to a power outage toward the end of the storm (this technical problem is being corrected and data will not be lost in the future). Most importantly, the vast majority of this rainfall occurred over a 12 hour period, and this heavy rainfall rate, combined with the fact that the ground was already saturated from 5 inches of rain during the first part of the month, was responsible for the tragic flooding. In fact, Vermont, which was devastated by flooding, only received 7-8 inches.

During the past 4 days we received 7.35 inches of rain. However, flooding was not as bad (for Berkshire County) because the rain fell over a more extended period. The first few days of rain were caused by a stalled frontal boundary and the last two were from the remnants of Lee. However, much of the early rainfall was still Lee related as much of Lee’s moisture was funneled north along the stalled frontal boundary.

There are presently 3 tropical systems in the Atlantic Basin (Katia, Maria and Nate).  Katia (hurricane) is headed out to sea and Nate (tropical storm) will come onshore along the Mexican coast in the next few days. Maria is tracking toward the East Coast and may strengthen into a hurricane. However, it is still many days away and the track is highly uncertain once it reaches the Bahamas.  It still, very likely, will recurve out into the Atlantic before making landfall but the track will have to be closely watched. Go to the National Hurricane Center website (www.nhc.noaa.gov) for the latest (and most official) updates (as well as cool satellites, etc.). This and many other websites can be found on the “Weather Links” page of this website.

Saturday looks like a beautiful day (much like today). Sunday will be a bit cloudier and there is a slight chance of a shower in the afternoon. However, most of us should remain dry (finally). Have a good weekend. Later…..