TODAY is living proof of YESTERDAY'S forecast!

Well today certainly turned out to be what the ABC6 Weather Center was calling for. Showers began in the early hours of this morning and continued to the early afternoon. Around 1pm this afternoon there were still a lot of lingering clouds, but the sun proved to break through by 2:30 and the temperature peaked today at 87° in Providence. Tonight the overnight lows are expected to dip into the mid 60's, if the dewpoint temps decrease more drastically over the evening hours, we may even get a little cooler than that.

Tomorrow, we will be under that high pressure system that I had mentioned Yesterday. This high pressure will also bring about some drier air to give all of us some relief from the humidity. Things will certainly be a little comfier on Friday and Saturday, Sunday is looking ok as well, but we cannot exactly rule out a pop-up shower here and there for the RI and SE Mass area. Only time will tell about that.

The official temperature and wind forecast for the weekend...

Friday, a high of 81. Winds light and variable. Mainly out of the North for most of the day then a Sea Breeze will kick in shifting to a Southerly wind by about 5pm. Overnight temperatures expected to maybe even dip into the upper 50's because of the low dew points and humidity.

Saturday a high of 80, it will also be another gorgeous day. Some clouds rolling in but they will be associated with fair weather. The winds will be mainly be out of the South once again at about 5mph. Overnight low calling for about 63°.

On Sunday, still a decent day, some patchy fog in the morning hours with a few more clouds than Saturday sticking around. A high of about 80. We cannot completely say that it will stay dry all day. There is a slight possibility of some pop-up showers in parts of Southern RI.

The start of next week also is not looking quite pleasing. Patchy fog and mostly cloudy throughout most of the day, the high will be 78°.

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More interesting info to come in the Tropics.

A Tweet from the Northeast Quadrant today indicated that a project called PREDICT which stands for the Pre-Depression Investigation of Cloud Systems in the Tropics will run from August 15th to about September 30th to study Hurricane Genesis. To find out more info on what the project entails, there is a great video on Northeast Quadrant's Blog. Be sure to check it out! And as always, I will keep you posted with these new findings in the Tropics as they come.

Right now it's pretty quiet out there. However, the National Hurricane Center is currently looking at two systems for tropical development. At the moment they both are only at a 10-20% chance of forming into anything significant.

That's the latest from the Weather Center at ABC6!

Back in the Weather Center with Fred Campagna

As of today, we've been under a high pressure. A hot, humid day and pretty gusty at times.. although it didn't quite hit 90, it certainly felt like it with the heat index. Winds were out of the South/Southwest at an average of 15mph for most of the day. Right now in Providence the temperature is at 85° with party cloudy skies. Overnight temperatures will be in the low 70's.

For Tomorrow, expect showers early. As the day moves on, there are chances for a spot thunderstorm as well. Best chance for precipitation is late morning/early afternoon. By late afternoon things should clear up slightly, leaving the rest of the day partly sunny with a blend of clouds. Winds tomorrow will be out of the Southwest once again with sustained winds at about 8mph.

Friday we will be back under a high pressure once again, it will stay semi muggy though. The Mid-Atlantic States however, will experience a passing cold front that may move through to our area by Saturday. Any showers will most likely stay to our South but we cannot rule out a shower or two especially in parts of Southern RI. Once the cold front passes through our area later on Saturday, the air may become a bit dryer, leaving us with the best chance to get some relief from the muggy conditions the rest of this weekend.

I will have the full, updated forecast for you Tomorrow afternoon in the Weather Center.

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Update in the Tropics

Nada! The National Hurricane Center is not currently picking up any waves of potential tropical weather at this time.

For those Meteorologists that have predicted an above average Hurricane Season in terms of topical activity, they may just be left a little disappointed. All we have seen so far was Hurricane Alex at the very end of June, and of course Bonnie, which did not even reach Category 1 Hurricane strength. As we know, Bonnie was a short-lived Tropical Storm. If you take a look at NOAA's Tropical Cyclone Climatology, you may be disappointed considering the average activity for a normal Hurricane Season reports that at least 2 named storms occur by Aug 1st. As of right now, "average" is just the case, nothing more. Although August is just around the corner, indicating the heightening part of the Hurricane Season, I do not think the Tropical Weather will be will be much more significant than an average August month.

Comfy day!

The humidity certainly has subsided! This is the first day in a long time that I have actually seen dewpoint temperatures shaded in the "Comfy Zone"!! The high today in Providence was 85° and that is just what it feels like that out there in the Rhode Island area today. This is not only because of low humidity, but also because it has been pretty gusty out there today. Average winds were out of the West/Northwest at about 15mph gusting to up to 28mph!

For tonight, overnight lows in the 60's because of the low humidity, temperatures are sure to drop tonight. The wind direction will stay the same as a Northwest wind, but the gusts will die down a little to more like 5mph by midnight.

Tomorrow should be very nice as well, the high for Tomorrow at about 84°. Winds will be out of the South/Southwest 8-12mph. Overnight on Friday though, the humidity will set back in. We've got a warm front associated with a low pressure system moving in towards our area, maybe causing some showers or pop up thunderstorms into the evening, mainly after 8pm.

The weekend will bring about some hot and humid weather for sure! Sat and Sun are both expected to have highs in the lower 90's. Winds will be out of the South/Southwest on both days around 5-10mph (some a little gustier at times). Sunday night however the winds will shift to the North/Northwest.

As for showers and thunderstorms, later on Saturday into Sunday morning we will see another good chance for showers and some possible thunderstorms. Sunday is when the cold front from the same low pressure system will finally catch up to us.

The beginning of next week though, should bring about some relief to the heat. Temperatures expected to be in the mid 80's on Monday and Tuesday, the humidity unfortunately though, will persist.

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Tropical Update

We do indeed have Tropical Depression 3 on our hands. Hurricane Hunters just came back from their flight into the storm and reported that even though there is room for development into Tropical Depression Bonnie, it may not happen until late, late tonight, or Friday. Conditions are however favorable for this Tropical Storm to develop. There is an upper level high pressure that will drive this storm North/Northwest (unfortunately into the direction of the oil spill). But as of right now, there is no indication of the storm developing further into a Hurricane from a Tropical Storm.

TD3 currently has max sustained winds of 35mph gusting to about 45mph. The path of the storm is Northwest at about 15mph.

(image thanks to wunderground.com on Twitter)

Latest Update!

As I published the previous post, the ABC6 Weather Center received word from the National Weather Service in Taunton that a strong thunderstorm cell is in the process of entering the Northern RI area. Parts of Smithfield, Burriville, Pascoag; mainly those areas are on the lookout for some severe and extremely gusty thunderstorms the warning is also extending more towards Providence as well (as we speak). Max gusts of about 60mph have been reported as the storm moved over Connecticut. Some trees were reported to be knocked down into roads, and there has also been some quarter sized hail recorded.

Northern RI will be in this warning until about 6pm. A severe Thunderstorm Watch is still in effect for most of RI until 8pm this evening. Be sure to take precautions and stay inside! This is the latest from the ABC6 Weather Center!

Another shot at thunderstorms?

For today and tomorrow I am working with Meteorologist Steve Cascione while Fred Campagna is out for a few days. My work with Fred will continue next week!

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Severe Thunderstorms!!??

Since earlier this morning the National Weather Service has issued a Severe Thunderstorm Watch until about 8pm this evening. RI until recently was not involved in this forecast, but was still calling for pop up showers and thunderstorms as we entered into the late afternoon/evening hours. Exactly half an hour before I made my way to the ABC6 Weather Center however, the National Weather Service did indeed extend their Severe Thunderstorm Watch to the RI area. I was very excited when I first arrived and met up with Steve. However, a little lesson about RI was shared with me and put a sort of damper on my hopes for a severe storm in my area. Steve explained to me that because of the Narragansett Bay, when we experience winds/strong winds coming from the South, that will actually stabilize conditions around the RI area and cause the storms to dissipate. He then explained that if RI was to experience strong thunderstorms, we would need a strong Westerly wind to keep the atmosphere unstable. So far this day has been very informative.

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Today in Providence the high temperature (which is also the current temperature) is 87° but with the oppresive humidity that we have been experiencing, it feels more like 90°. Right now a warm front is passing through the area followed by a trailing cold front. Ahead of the cold front is where we are seeing these strong, gusty thunderstorms popping up which puts us into the Severe Thunderstorm Watch until 8pm this evening. The cold front however, is not expected to reach our area until later tonight, most likely after midnight. This will lead to possible showers for RI through to Thursday morning. Overnight lows expected to be in the upper 60's to low 70's.

For Tomorrow, a great beach day! Temperatures will reach the lower 90's because of a pretty gusty North/Northwest wind of about 10-15 mph. in our area.

Overnight the temperature will dip into the lower 70's. A more extensive forecast for the expected story weekend weekend weather will come when I am in the ABC6 Weather Center tomorrow afternoon!

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And for the Tropical Update...

We have been looking at 97L for the past few days. As of yesterday, the big hype was that it may develop into a TD or a TS by today/Thursday. However, as we have seen today, 97L has been disrupted by the mountainous topography of Hispaniola, causing this wave to become disorganized. Therefore, conditions for this storm strengthening are not exactly favorable. We will keep a watch on this wave however, but The Weather Channel this morning has explained that although 97L may not turn into much, the "pipeline" across Africa is showing lots of activity, making conditions very favorable for Tropical Weather over the next week or so.

Today!

Computer is back in business... for now anyway!

It's been a cloudy, cloudy day for Providence, current Temperature is at 78°. This is actually the first day of "relief" or lower temperatures that we've seen in awhile. Looking at the dew points though, you would never know it. Dewpoints for Providence and most of RI are in the upper 60's to the 70's which would certainly put us in the "oppressive" range in terms of discomfort from humidity. But when you go outside you just do not feel it! The clouds have certainly had something to do with the reason behind all that.

Overnight temperatures will get a little cooler to upper 60's to low 70's. But tomorrow will certainly warm up to upper 80 degree temperatures, we may continue to stay dry but we can't rule out a shower or spot thunderstorm for later on into Friday evening or over the next two days for that matter. There are a few disturbances going on in the Great Lakes Region causing a lot of severe weather for that area, but if it continues to move into our area we only need to expect a spot shower or thunderstorm, nothing too major. Hopefully things will stay to the North of our area to make it a dry weekend.

Mild will definitely be the trend over the next couple of days. Overnight lows will be in the upper 70's which is not necessarily ideal for night time. We may even see yet another heat wave in our area if the temperature reaches 90° for Tomorrow. We are calling for 94° on Saturday because of that West, Southwest wind that we will experience, and on Sunday the high should be about 92. So, will we see another heat wave? The forecasted temperature for tomorrow is just slight of 90 at 89°, so we shall see!

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Update in the Tropics

There is an area off the coast of Africa right now that the National Weather Service is looking at in terms of possible tropical cyclonic formation. However, right now it's not too much to look at, they are only calling for a 10% chance of this. But it is important to make mention of that fact that we have currently broken out of El Nino conditions and now there is the talk of La Nina. La Nina makes for good conditions in terms of tropical weather and Hurricanes, and that's just what we have been calling for from the beginning. So expect a lot of active tropical weather to come!

From 7-14

*Note:

Computer was down Yesterday due to technical issues, however I did manage to write a word document post to add later.. so as of Wednesday, July 14th, this is what I had...

We’ve had a rainy Wednesday so far, a Flash Flood Warning in effect until 4:30pm for Providence County and in Attleboro MA, and a Flash Flood Watch is in effect until 6pm for the same area. By taking a look at the radar, the storm tracker has picked up showers moving into the area. And for awhile now those showers have appeared to be somewhat stationary, yet moving very slightly towards Southern RI. The heavier rain is expected to hit the Southern RI area over the next hour or so. There have also been some “yellow colors” showing up on the radar, but there have been no signs of thunder. That simply means that there are torrential downpours occurring in those areas, not necessarily a thunderstorm. In fact, there has been no indication that a thunderstorm will occur within any of the flash flood areas for this evening, just a lot of heavy rain. Some of the rainfall rates have been estimated to be falling at 1.90in/hr, that’s almost 2 inches of rain per hour! In Smithfield (my hometown), 3.6 in. of rain has been recorded by about 4:45 pm this afternoon! This is more than the whole state of RI usually sees in the whole month of July! You can see just how intense these rainstorms have been over the past 24 hours.

Temperature currently in Providence is at 72°. The winds indicate a warm front that passed through our area. The wind direction in Northern RI is recorded as a NW wind, and as you move into Southern RI, the wind shifts to a South, to South Easterly wind in some areas. This is a textbook example of a Warm front and it just happens to be shown even in the small state of RI.

Over the next few days Temperatures will indeed warm up a little. On Thursday, some clouds early in the morning then we’ll see some sun as the day moves forward, the high for that day expected to be about 84°. On Friday, temperatures will are expected to be in the upper 80’s and eventually hit 90 by Saturday. Sunday is looking the same in terms of the 90 degree temperatures. Will there be another heat wave for July? That might just be so! ….More updated information will come from the Weather Center Tomorrow afternoon.

Broke Out of the Heat Wave!

Well the Heat Wave only lasted 4 days, which gave us some relief, but it is still pretty muggy out there for most of RI. The temperature is currently at 84 in Providence but with the heat index, Providence and most of RI is feeling temperatures in the upper 80's rather than the lower to mid 80's that the actual temperatures are. Right now we are experiencing winds coming out of the South Southwest at about 10mph.

Although the Temperature for Providence is currently at 84°,

The Heat Index shows that it feels like 88°. The Heat Index takes

into account the Temperature and the Dew Point/Humidity Levels

in order to determine what it really "feels like" out there.

(Image thanks to ABC6)

The Tropical update consists of Tropical Depression 2 (TD2) which is located slightly inland over the Texas/Mexico boarder. TD2 has winds of about 35mph and gusts of 40. The track of this Tropical Depression is currently moving Northwest at about 15mph. However, I do not foresee the strength of TD2 lasting much longer as it has already hit land and should soon dissipate.

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Weekend Forecast!

Friday expect patchy fog in the morning with temperatures around the mid-upper 70's to start off the morning, winds will be calm. There is a slight call for a stray shower in the morning hours around RI but after that breaks out, things will soon clear up to a high temperature of about 86° and conditions will continue to be muggy. We will also experience Southerly winds of about 7-10mph.

Saturday however is where RI will experience the best chance of precipitation. High Temperatures for that day will be about 85°. Showers and Thunderstorms could roll through as early as 3pm but the best chance of storms are more likely to be in the evening hours with heavy rain expected after midnight. Conditions will continue to be humid with overnight lows in the 60's.

On Sunday, Patchy Fog in the morning 50% chance of showers throughout the day with a high temperature in the mid 80's.

Feeling Hot, Hot, Hot!

Over the past few days, the Northeast has been under a serious High Pressure system causing a heat wave. This heat wave has stayed prominent even into today with slightly cooler temperatures at the coasts. Providence's high temperature for today hit 92. The winds started off this morning from the North Northeast, and over the course of the say has shifted to South Southeast at about 9mph. Overnight temperatures will cool into the upper 70's which is still pretty high for overnight temperatures and the winds will calm as the night progresses.

The National Weather Service in Taunton, MA issued a Heat Advisory at 10:30 this morning and will be in effect until 7pm this evening for most of Rhode Island except for Block Island Newport and Bristol counties. A Heat Advisory is issued when high temperatures are experienced in addition to high humidity to result in a heat indices of 100° or higher.

Hopefully we will be able to break out of this heat wave as of tomorrow. Slightly cooler temperatures are expected although we may see some lower 90° temps further inland in RI. The forecast high for RI however is 87° and the humidity will still be pretty high. Winds again will be out of the South Southeast at about 8mph.

Friday looks about the same with a high temp expected to be 87°

Saturday however looks like our first chance of relief in terms of the precipitation kind. A low pressure system will pass through the area in the late afternoon to the evening on Saturday which will bring about a few showers into our area.. We will take a better look at this in Tomorrow's Forecast.

4th of July Forecast

Flood Damage from Alex in Mexico

(Image thanks to EarthSky on Twitter)

Alex hit land as a Category 2 Hurricane, but now it has dissipated to just a tropical storm.. The main focus in here today is the 4th of July Forecast and he possible heat wave that will come of it.

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Today was a lot like Yesterday. Dry and comfy with temperatures in the mid 70's, the high today in Providence proved to be 74. Tonight things will stay comfy for the most part with temperatures falling once again into the mid 50's overnight. We also saw a pretty breezy day today with winds around 12mph. Overnight the winds will die down a little to about 6mph coming from the North/Northwest.

For Friday, a Northerly wind, once again making the day pretty breezy with wind speeds of about 8-11mph, as the evening rolls around the winds will become variable between 2-6mph. Temperatures should warm up a little to about mid to upper 70's, for a low, mid 60's.

On Saturday our "warm up" begins, temperatures will reach about 84degrees on this day, the SW winds will vary between 6-12mph may become a bit gusty at times.

And for the forecast everyone has been waiting for, the 4th of July. And yes, everyone will get what they wish for on the 4th (a cookout day!). Temperatures will hit the lower 90's for sure, a little cooler towards the coast, so a little relief to the heat for the Bristol Parade. There will be a Westerly wind of about 9mph.. So everyone enjoy the holiday!

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Sunday will only be the beginning for a Heat Wave to be experienced in RI as well as all the way down to the Mid-Atlantic States. Expect Temperatures on Monday in RI to be about 93. Tuesday will really heat up to about 95, and Thursday 94