A Rainstorm Called “Nate”

Last night, Hurricane Nate made landfall twice as a Cat 1 – bringing heavy rain, strong wind and hefty storm surge to the Gulf Coast.  Check out this picture from the Hard Rock Hotel in Biloxi last night:

As I think I wrote in my weather blog last night – With as active as this Atlantic Hurricane Season has been, I feel as though many of us have become a little desensitized to these powerful storms.  Nate may not have been as strong as Harvey, Irma, Maria… but Nate was still a hurricane that made landfall (twice).  For those of us who don’t feel as though we’ve been desensitized by this active hurricane season – we may be feeling quite weary of these storms.  I’m with you – but we still need to remain vigilant, as Atlantic Hurricane Season carries on throughout the month of November.

I also mentioned last night in my blog that one “silver lining” to Nate has been it’s very quick forward speed.  This storm will not hang out in any one particular location for very long, like Harvey did and like Jose did (I think it was FIVE days that off-shore storm pestered us with wind and clouds and gloom).  Nate tonight is a tropical depression and will continue that quick forward motion (23 mph to the NNE), continuing to weaken.  We’ll likely see the final advisory from the National Hurricane Center on Nate tomorrow afternoon.  For us, this is just a rainstorm with a name attached to it… We’re in for wet weather tomorrow – but not a complete washout of the day.

The rain tomorrow will come in two main batches:  The first round is during the morning commute with some isolated downpours – and while we get a break during midday into the early afternoon, the second round of rain fills in for the late afternoon into the evening (4pm – 9pm, or so).  It will be breezy as well, with gusts possible between 30-40mph.

So… Lots of questions tonight about the game at Fenway tomorrow.  Here’s the forecast I put together for the 1pm game (which looks likely to stay dry, believe it or not):

BUT if the game is at 7pm… it could very well be a washout – if not a long rain delay.  I told Joe Amorosino that I think it’s a 10% chance of a rainout at 1pm and a 70% for a rainout at 7pm.

All said and done it looks like a general 0.5-1.00″ of rain for most, with isolated spots coming in closer to 2″ or more…  The atmosphere is PRIMED with moisture (I’m sure it was obvious if you went outside at all today with dewp’s around 70°), so it won’t be hard to squeeze out some downpours.  Too much rain too quickly could result in some localized urban/street flooding.  We’ll be tracking it all for you through the day.

Also… We need to talk about how this weather is super confusing…  What’s up with Tuesday?  I’m still holding firmly to the attitude that “I’ll take it – because I know what’s coming.”  Currently, I’m debating putting the beach forecast together.  That seems weird for October.