Summer is Back!

Summer weather is back on Labor Day!  The beach forecast is ready to go!  Do keep in mind though, waves will be 2-4′ and there is a moderate risk for rip currents today.  Swim safely!  For the rest of us, we get to enjoy highs in the low 80s (a little cooler right near the water), under mostly sunny skies – and hopefully you won’t be “enjoying” it stuck in the drive-home traffic.

Tomorrow is another warm day, with highs in the mid to upper 80s – but the humidity is also back in the picture.  A front will be moving in from the NW late in the day, and this could spawn showers and storms to the NW late Tuesday.  That front does work in through the day on Wednesday – and sort of “stalls out” over us for a bit.  This will keep the wet weather in the picture through Thursday, and possibly even into Friday.  This round of unsettled weather also has the potential to be a SOAKER – especially Wednesday into Thursday.  We’ll continue to watch it and time it out for your planning purposes.  Especially if you’re planning on heading to Gillette on Thursday for the Patriots Season Opener!  ThursDAY does look very wet – but we may be able to dry things out – or at least see the rain taper to showers – for game time.  Still, it’ll be cool enough for an extra layer:

Tracking Hurricane Irma (some of this is a repeat of last night’s post… but there’s still some good stuff in here!  Keep reading…):

From Meteorologist Chris Lambert’s blog earlier this weekend:  “Obviously with Harvey fresh in our minds, any potent hurricane that forms out in the Atlantic is going to catch a lot of folks attention. With Irma, while the attention and interest is well warranted, the final forecast/path is not close to being nailed down.

What we know is that Irma is a powerful hurricane already, even though it’s well out there in the Atlantic. It will continue to be a powerful hurricane for day upon day to come as warm water, little wind shear and little interaction with land will allow it to continue it’s journey uninterrupted through at least the next 5 days.”

Below is the latest forecast from the National Hurricane Center as of 11 AM Monday:

You can see by this forecast track that this storm is expected to strengthen to a Cat 4 and move toward the Leeward Islands for the middle of this week.  Hurricane Watches have already been issued for places like St. Kitts, Saint Martin, Antigua for late Tuesday into Wednesday.

Remember that what we’re looking at here is a “cone of uncertainty,” which means that the actual track could end up falling anywhere within that cone.  The cone is not showing a SWATH of area that will be affected, but rather some wiggle room for the actual track of this powerful storm.  So, it could end up in Northern Hispaniola – or it could end up moving into the Bahamas – or it could end up taking a little more of a northerly shift, and barely miss those areas (best case scenario).  However, by looking at this forecast from some of the smartest tropical meteorologists in the world – it looks most likely that this storm will move into the Bahamas by the end of the work week as a devastating Cat 4.  Unfortunately, there’s just nothing in Irma’s way to stop the storm from holding together and growing stronger.

So where does this storm go past there??  And when will we know more?!  I know it can cause anxiety to see this strong storm out in the Atlantic, forecast to make a curve to the NW during the middle of next week.  It’s just that there are so many players/factors/keys to every forecast model run – and several models – and several runs in a day – and things can change from run to run.  This far out – a forecast can change dramatically.  So, while I know there have been others (even here in the Boston area) that have shown what certain models are doing TODAY, predicting NINE DAYS OUT – it’s really not worth much, in my humble opinion.  We really need to wait and see for any amount of certainty with this – and we’ll keep you posted every step of the way.  All possibilities are still on the table – including “out to sea.”  Though, update today – it’s looking less and less likely that the track would take Irma into the Gulf of Mexico.  So we are getting closer to at least being able to take that option off of the table.  Still – the entire East Coast is still ON the table – and as we approach the peak of Atlantic Hurricane Season (Sept. 10th), it’s very important for every area with a coastline to have a hurricane plan in place.

Here’s EVERYTHING you need to know about being ready, being stocked with proper supplies, and what to do before/during/after a storm:

NHC: Hurricane Preparedness

Please stay tuned – and stay tuned to the correct media outlets (those you KNOW you can trust).  Beware those that want to “fearmonger” and the posts online that really are just “click bait.”

Be well.  Enjoy the rest of this Labor Day Weekend.  – Breezy