DANGEROUS HURRICANE GUSTAV MOVES NW TOWARDS WESTERN CUBA… TROPICAL STORM HANNA STRUGGLES WITH PERSISTENT UPPER-LEVEL LOW… AFTER A HUMID SATURDAY, FORECASTERS PREDICT A DRY PATTERN FOR NEXT WEEK
Of course, the main weather headline has to be Hurricane Gustav, with sustained winds as of this writing at 120 MPH. That is a category 3 storm. It appears to becoming more symmetrical and the eye has appeared on satellite imagery. The hurricane is now heading NW towards western Cuba. It may weaken a bit as it crosses Cuba, but that part of Cuba is not that elevated and is quite narrow. After that, most models take the hurricane towards Louisiana. Yesterday (8/29) was the third anniversary of Hurricane Katrina so this storm is causing a lot of anxiety along the Gulf Coast. Evacuations and preparations have begun as officials want to be much better prepared for this storm than they were for Katrina. There’s another storm out there and that is Hanna. Hanna is undergoing shear from an upper-level low that was expected to weaken but is hanging on. Once that shear relaxes, Hanna may get its act together. Models predict a SW track eventually with this system which is quite rare. Our weather will be quite tranquil except for an isolated thunderstorm over the weekend from a cold front approaching from the NW. Eventually, slightly cooler air will move in behind the front on Monday and Tuesday with an east wind… sound familiar? We’ve seen this set up several times this month. I picked up 0.40 inches of rain yesterday from an isolated shower that popped up right over my neighborhood. Unfortunately, most of Hampton Roads was dry on Friday. Areas to our west picked up some pretty good rainfall totals this past week from Fay’s remnants. This rain missed Hampton Roads for the most part. Our deficit grows and is now six to seven inches for the year in some areas. I’ll have an update on Sunday.
