Tropics Trying To Awaken?

There are two areas of convection ongoing in the Tropics this morning, one in the Eastern Caribbean, and another Southeast of Florida over the Bahamas in the Atlantic. However, the odds are against these two areas of convection because of high pressure in the vicinity of #2, and too much wind shear in the upper levels over #1. In fact, too much shear in the atmosphere is a sign of the El Nino conditions in the Eastern Equatorial Pacific. During El Nino hurricane seasons, tropical cyclone development can be suppressed because storms are unable to organize in the shear tearing the circulation apart. So indications are that the Tropics are trying to get their hurricane season act together...but perhaps El Nino is going to prevent storms from organizing and strengthening.

Scattered Showers & Storms

Scattered showers and thunderstorms continue to move northward through Central Virginia Monday. The strongest storms have frequent lightning, small hail, gusty winds to 30-40mph, and very heavy rainfall that can lead to flooding of poorly drained locations. Most of these storms should remain below severe limits, but these thunderstorms are still dangerous because of the lightning and downpours. Remember, if you can hear thunder, you are close enough to be struck, so remain inside!

Storm chances will linger through this afternoon, and return again Tuesday from mid-day through the evening.
--Carrie

Mmmmm, Cookies...

Low temperatures this morning ranged from the mid 50s to low 60s. The official low in Richmond was 61, which was three degrees shy of the record low!

In my previous blog entry I mentioned how people in the Midwest are dealing with intense summer heat. Well, they are not the only ones - we ran an interesting story during our morning newscast about hot weather in Redding CA. It was so hot, a local meteorologist tried to bake cookies in his car.

When I saw the video, my jaw dropped (you'll see the smile on my face). This story was from the TV station I worked at a couple years ago. What a blast from the past!