Relief is in sight....

We have to endure one more of these oppressively hot and humid days before relief arrives. Again today, we will be in the mid to upper 90s to even near 100 for highs with heat index values exceeding 105 at times this afternoon.

As a frontal boundary edges our way, we will see some scattered storms at times later this afternoon and evening. Some of those storms could be strong to severe. The atmospheric set-up today is one that is favorable for microbursts, so damaging winds definitely are a possibility with a few of the storms.

The cold front will stall out to our south this weekend, and we will have a northeasterly wind flow in place behind the front around here. Also, lots of moisture will be pooled nearby behind the front, so all in all, I think the weekend will feature a good amount of clouds as well as the chance for a passing shower or storm at almost any point in the day. However, I think the thing that is most anticipated is the cooler temps. Look for highs in the upper 80s both Saturday and Sunday. In fact, the MET guidance numbers for Charlotte show a high Saturday of 83 and Sunday at 81. That is a possibility, but the clouds would really have to be piled in here. Suffice to day, cooler weather this weekend.

Chris...
The strong northerly shear finally beat up Chris enough that the NHC has downgraded the system to a tropical depression this morning. The system looks horrible this morning with no deep shower or stom activity near the center.

If Chris survives, there will be an opportunity for at least some re-strengthening later this weekend and early next week as it moves across the Gulf of Mexico.

Final T-ball Update...
We closed out the t-ball season last night. Unfortunately, we did not get to play the scheduled game, but we had fun with the end of season celebration. I had a blast being a coach for those kids. They really did bless my heart and were a lot of fun to be around.

The next sport to come up is soccer. Note sure whether or not we will make a run at playing that. We have a lot of stuff happening this fall, so I think right now we will probably sit that one out....

Anyway, have a great day. I was in the early morning shift today, so nap time for me will be a welcome thing this afternoon. I will be back in my normal evening shift this weekend.

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Thursday Evening...

Some active storms this afternoon. Reports of multiple trees down in Gaston county 5 miles southeast of Cherryville and penny size hail along Hwy 52 in Stanly county.

It was also a hot one. Looks like Gastonia topped out at 98.

You might have noticed some issues with News 14 Carolina today. We had some fairly major computer problems, and due to that fact, some old information ran on the air for a good chuck of the afternoon while our engineering staff fixed the problem. Thankfully, everything was back up and running properly right in time for the first severe thunderstorm warning to be issued.

Hopefully, all of the issues have been ironed out and we will have smooth sailing tomorrow.

A quick note about Chris. The system has tried to develop some deep convection on the east side of the circulation center, but you can clearly see that fairly strong northerly shear is still affecting Chris. Take a look at this link and notice the thunderstorms getting blown off to the south soon after they form. So, all in all, the environment around Chris remains hostile this evening. But, the low level circulation is still very much in tact, so Chris still has a pulse.

http://www.ssd.noaa.gov/goes/flt/t1/loop-avn.html

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Humbling....

The weather often times has a way of humbling me. One of those times has certainly occurred with Chris.

I consider tropical weather forecasting to be one of my strong suits as a meteorologist. To me, all systems looked go for Chris to likely become a hurricane by this morning. However, I wake up this morning to see Chris a shadow of its former self, struggling to hold on to life as a very weak tropical storm. Quite frankly, I simply did not see this dramatic weakening as a big possibility yesterday.

What happened? Well, I think it was a combination of two things. First, the system entrained dry air, and that initially started the weakening process of Chris. Also, northerly shear impacted the system, and those two factors were enough to beat up Chris significantly.

What we have this morning is a swirl of low and mid level clouds. No deep convection is associated with the circulation center of Chris. Check out this visible satellite loop...

http://www.ssd.noaa.gov/goes/flt/t1/loop-vis.html

Chris still has a well-defined low level circulation, and if it can develop convection near that center, some re-strengthening is possible. However, it now has a tough road ahead of it with Cuba in its not-so-distant future.

So, I will take this lesson and run with it. Maybe I missed something that I could have seen yesterday indicating Chris would weaken? Maybe not? Either way, it just means I will search twice as hard for indications of what will happen next time.

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