Good Tuesday Morning...

A few brief notes here...

• First of all, we had a good, soaking rain at our house for most of the night and much of this morning as well. That still is a nice sight to me.
• An area of low pressure is gathering strength off of the Carolina coast this morning, and it could become a tropical depression soon. Look for lots of rainy and windy conditions along the North Carolina coast today into tonight. See the note from the NHC at the bottom of this post.
• Rainfall deficits have been eaten into significantly across the region. CLT airport is now under 5.5" below average for the year.
• My plans to cut grass today have again been nixed by the weather. Oh well....what a shame (detect the sarcasm).

A quick note about tropical airmasses. There was some confusion over what I said a couple of days ago about the tropical airmass that moved in. When we get a feed of air straight out of the tropics (like we have now), that air is generally very clean air. Therefore, when skies clear, you get beautiful blue skies and the air quality is generally very good.

Now, yes, our bad air quality days occur in summer, typically when we have a lot of humidity in place. But that is generally a function of us having a very stagnant upper air pattern in place (which normally really only happens in summer). It is not because we have a muggy air mass...it is just when it normally occurs. I hope that clears up any confusion...

Trying to get a little work done on my deck today....we will see if we can dry things out enough for that later on today. Everybody have a great day....

Here is the NHC statement from this morning...

SATELLITE AND RADAR INFORMATION INDICATE THAT A SMALL LOW PRESSURESYSTEM COULD BE FORMING ABOUT 140 MILES SOUTH OF CAPE FEAR NORTHCAROLINA. THIS SYSTEM HAS THE POTENTIAL TO DEVELOP INTO A TROPICALDEPRESSION AT ANY TIME AS IT MOVES NORTH TO NORTH-NORTHEASTWARD AT15 TO 20 MPH. AN AIR FORCE RESERVE RECONNAISANCE AIRCRAFT WILLINVESTIGATE THE SYSTEM LATER THIS MORNING TO DETERMINE IF A CLOSEDCIRCULATION EXISTS AT THE SURFACE.

RESIDENTS ALONG THE NORTH CAROLINA COAST SHOULD CLOSELY MONITOR THEPROGRESS OF THIS SYSTEM TODAY AS TROPICAL STORM WARNINGS COULD BEREQUIRED WITH LITTLE NOTICE. EVEN IF THIS SYSTEM DOES NOT FORM INTOA TROPICAL CYCLONE... SHOWERS AND THUNDERSTORMS ACCOMPANIED BYLOCALLY HEAVY RAINFALL AND STRONG GUSTY WINDS WILL GRADUALLY SPREADONSHORE THE NORTH CAROLINA COAST TODAY AND EARLY TONIGHT.

FORECASTER STEWART