WEATHER OVER THE WEEKEND -- By Friday morning the remnants of former Hurricane Floyd were located over the Gulf of Maine, with an area of rain extending across New England and Upstate New York. By then, the system had merged with a midlatitude stationary front and had lost its tropical characteristics. Through much of the weekend cleanup efforts continued across the Eastern Seaboard as a result of the heavy rain. Several locations in New York and New Jersey recorded between 5 and 6 inches of rain on Thursday. Farther inland, amounts ranged from 2 to 3 inches in central Pennsylvania. Albany, NY had an all-time record 24 hour precipitation total of 5.60 inches. At Windsor Locks, CT, the 6.30 inches of rain on Thursday was a record for September. Flooding remained a problem along the Connecticut River and for numerous rivers across New Jersey, North Carolina and Virginia on Sunday night. Some river gauging stations in the Northeast had reported all-time record high stream levels. As of Saturday night, Floyd was responsible for at least 45 fatalities along the East Coast.
Elsewhere, much of the nation had relatively tranquil weather conditions for the first half of the weekend. A large high pressure system moved slowly eastward from the Midwest. Numerous record low temperatures were either tied or set across the Ohio Valley and Southeast on Friday and Saturday mornings as a result of the relatively cloud-free skies and weak wind conditions under the high pressure system. Stations experiencing records on Friday included Birmingham, Huntsville and Montgomery in Alabama; Augusta and Macon in Georgia; Daytona Beach, Jacksonville and Orlando in Florida, Paducah, KY, Jackson, TN and Springfield, IL. Saturday morning's records were set at Paducah, KY and Charlotte, NC.
Cool weather with cloudy skies were found across southern California, where record low maximum temperatures were set on Saturday in Downtown Los Angeles with a high temperature of 66 degrees, Newport Beach at 66 degrees and Oceanside Marina at 64 degrees.
By early Saturday morning a cold front began moving southeastward across the northern Plains, signaling the advance of cooler air from Canada.
The tenth tropical depression of the North Atlantic hurricane season formed in the southeastern Gulf of Mexico early on Saturday.
WEATHER FOR THE START OF THE NEW WEEK -- A cold front stretching from a low pressure system located east of Hudson Bay to the Texas Panhandle moved eastward and southward as the leading edge of a distinctly cooler air mass that moved into the northern Plains. As of Sunday night temperatures to the east of the front were in the 60s and 70s across the Great Lakes and Mississippi Valley, while to the west of the front, temperatures across the Plains were in the upper 40s and low 50s. This cold front curved northward over the Texas Panhandle, where the western terminus of the front became stationary along the Rockies and Intermountain West.
The cold front also served as the focus for thunderstorm activity. By Sunday night rainshowers and thunderstorms stretched from eastern Upper Peninsula southwestward along the front across Lake Michigan to the St. Louis, MO vicinity. Earlier on Sunday afternoon and evening a line of strong to severe thunderstorms developed along the cold front across eastern Iowa and later across southern and eastern Wisconsin. Several waterspouts were reported on northern Lake Michigan. Farther south, severe thunderstorms were also reported along the front across portions of Oklahoma on Sunday night as large hail fell and wind gusts reached 65 mph. The slight risk of severe thunderstorms is anticipated to continue across Red River Valley of north Texas and southern Oklahoma through Monday morning.
The region to the east of the front contained relatively warm air. Southerly winds (from the south) were found near the front, while to the east, essentially calm conditions prevailed near the center of highest pressure that was centered off the New England coast. The chilly Canadian air mass that was moving into Plains and Midwest was associated with a large and elongated ridge of high pressure centered over the Manitoba lakes district and extended south into western Kansas. Light snow fell across the higher terrain of the Colorado Rockies west of Denver, as afternoon highs across the region were as much as 25 degrees below the 30 year climatological average high temperatures for this time of year. By Monday morning high pressure should be centered slightly to the south and east over the eastern Dakotas, while the cold front should continue moving eastward. With the forecast for clearing skies and weak winds, frost advisories were posted across a large region of the Northern Plains and Upper Midwest from western North Dakota to northwestern Wisconsin.
On Sunday night Tropical Depression 10 in the Gulf of Mexico intensified into Tropical Storm Harvey. As of late Sunday night, Harvey was nearly stationary and was located 330 miles south-southwest of St. Petersburg, FL. Maximum sustained surface winds were approximately 45 mph and central pressure was estimated to be 1002 mb. A widespread area of precipitation, in part associated with Harvey, was found across much of the Florida Peninsula, with the most intense rain along the Gulf Coast from the Florida Keys north to Apalachee Bay. This system could begin to move toward the northeast and some strengthening of this system is expected. Tropical storm watches were posted for Florida's Gulf Coast from Bonita Beach north to the Suwannee River.
Widely scattered thunderstorms were found across the Rockies and the Intermountain West on Sunday. Some of the storms across Utah became severe. Severe thunderstorms produced wind damage in Mesa, AZ on Sunday afternoon. Other thunderstorms in the neighboring Phoenix area produced some localized flooding and necessitated issuance of a urban and small stream flood advisory.
High pressure with sunny skies and an offshore wind-flow helped produce record high temperatures on Sunday afternoon in western Washington State at Toledo (90 degrees), Olympia (86 degrees) and North Seattle (85 degrees) and Seattle-Tacoma (82 degrees).
TEMPERATURE EXTREMES IN THE COTERMINOUS U.S. -- On Sunday, the lowest temperature reported in the continental U.S. was 27 degrees at Kalispell, MT and Stanley, ID, while Sunday's highest temperature was 103 degrees at Bullhead City, AZ.
ALASKAN WEATHER -- Except for breaks in the clouds across the Tanana and Upper Yukon Valleys, much of Alaska was cloudy on Sunday afternoon. A large area of low pressure was located over southwestern Alaska near Bristol Bay. A stationary front along a trough of low pressure was located across northern Alaska roughly paralleling the Brooks Range. Wide spread light rain was also reported, while trace amounts of snow were reported along the Arctic coast, where on Saturday, light freezing drizzle was a problem at Barrow.
The lowest overnight temperature in Alaska as of Sunday was 26 degrees at Eagle, and the midafternoon highest statewide temperature was 64 degrees at Eielson AFB.
HAWAIIAN WEATHER -- A ridge of high pressure moved to within approximately 400 miles to the north of Honolulu on Sunday afternoon. As a result, the east to northeast trade winds remained light to moderate across the islands, with a few light trade showers found along the windward slopes of the mountains.
EYE ON THE TROPICS -- Hurricane Gert remained a major hurricane as it continued to move across the north Atlantic basin over the weekend. By late Sunday night, Gert was moving northwest at 12 mph and had reached a position approximately 460 miles south-southeast of Bermuda. Sustained near-surface winds were approximately 130 mph. Gert is expected to continue to move toward the northwest until Monday before gradually turning toward the north. Hurricane watches and warnings were posted for Bermuda.
In the Eastern Pacific, Hurricane Hillary developed as a tropical depression on Friday and then intensified over the weekend before becoming a hurricane on Sunday. As of late Sunday night, Hillary, a minimal hurricane with winds of 75 mph, was moving to the north-northwest at 13 mph and was located approximately 255 miles south-southwest of Cabo San Lucas at the southern tip of Baja California. Little additional intensification was expected as the system was heading for cooler waters off the coast.
SO YOU WANT WEATHER DATA? A national network of several thousand weather observation stations continually monitors the near surface weather conditions across the country. You can access essentially current weather data from around your state or the United States from the portion of the Online Weather Homepage marked as State Surface Data-Text. Consult the Monday optional Supplemental Information for additional information as to the data and how you can interpret these data.
From the files of the Aviation Weather Center, Kansas City, MO and Intellicast
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Prepared by Edward J. Hopkins, Ph.D., email hopkins@meteor.wisc.edu
© Copyright, 1999, The American Meteorological Society.