Monday, August 24, 2009

Is it still August?

What a fabulous weather weekend across the Mid-South! Canadian high pressure dominated just as predicted and brought the region a re-lapse of our near-record cool July! Highs topped in the lower 80s at best over the weekend while many places outside the city proper dropped into the 50s in the early morning hours. Can't ask for much better! In fact, my friends in Jackson, TN saw a record low Sunday morning (54) and a record cool max Sunday afternoon (78). My station in Bartlett dropped to 58 Sunday morning and 57 this morning.

As for humidity levels, they were basically non-existent compared to a "normal" August day in the Bluff City. Normally, surface dewpoints (a measure of the actual water content in the air) average in the 65-70 degree range this time of year. The official dewpoint at Memphis International has been at or below 60 (mostly in the 50s) since just after midnight Saturday morning - a streak of 63 hours and counting. I expect that streak to come to an end during the day tomorrow, but 3 days of very low humidity is certainly something we'll take.

As we head into the meat of the work week, temperatures will moderate some as that high pressure moves east and more southerly wind emerges, bringing dewpoints and humidity levels back up slightly over the next couple of days and temps will return to the upper 80s to near 90. There will be some rain chances late in the week and early this weekend, though it appears that starting next week we may get another one of those great big Canadian highs to bring us another shot of atypical weather to close out the month! Let's all cross our fingers for that! All the details can be found in the MWN Forecast.

In the tropics, Bill has become extratropical and is headed across the northern Atlantic towards, of all places, the British Isles. Forecasters are now watching what could become "Danny" in the western Atlantic. Check the MWN Tropical Page for the latest on this developing storm. Forecast models indicate it could strengthen into a storm later this week and become a threat to the U.S. East Coast over the weekend.

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