Lets start off in the tropics...

Tropical Storm Colin was very short lived. Many "tropical weather-loving" people are saying that Colin was somewhat of a disappointment. As of right now the system does not have a closed surface circulation and wind shear is certainly against the storms odds as well. But if you look at the storms projected path, I think that there could be some chance of re-strengthening. The storm will still be over warm waters over the next couple of days, and if the storm moves away from the area of wind shear with a decent amount of circulation, I think Colin could re-generate. The National Hurricane Center as of right now is still surveying the storm and is calling for a 20% chance of re-generation into something tropical. The airborne Hurricane Hunters are also picking up areas of Tropical Storm force winds in the Northeast portion of the storm... This will certainly be something to watch well into this weekend.

On another note in the tropics, there is another strong tropical wave coming off of the Coast of Africa right now so whether or not Colin regenerates, there will certainly be more active weather in the tropics to come!

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Right now the temperature in Providence is at 87° but with the heat index it feels more like 91°. The heat has just been extremely oppressive across the board. If you take a look at our wind direction, that will explain a lot in terms of where all of this heat and humidity is coming from. There is a strong South/Southwesterly Wind present in our RI/SE Mass area. This wind is coming from exactly where all of these high temperatures are across the Northeast region of the US. Today it was 100° in Louisville, which felt more like 111° with the heat index! It's no wonder why we are so hot and sticky even in our own area.

The humidity will persist overnight. The low temperature tonight will only get down to the mid 70's which is still very "high" for an overnight "low".

Tomorrow we will once again see a very sticky day. High temperature calling to be about 86°. The winds will be out of the South/Southwest again tomorrow. Still some winds of about 10mph which is a decent breeze, but certainly not as breezy as today. There will be some showers tomorrow and a threat of some possible thunderstorms as well. The morning will be fairly dry but once you get to about 1pm, the showers will probably roll through quickly. And then we will see another threat around 4/5pm into the evening as well.

On Friday though, some dryer air will come into our area, bringing about a much nicer weekend. I will give you the full weekend forecast tomorrow from my internship work in the ABC6 Weather Center.

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Aurora Borealis?

I'm sure some of you may have heard about the solar activity that has caused a strong solar storm. This is usually associated with the hype of the Northern Lights or Aurora Borealis. There has been much talk about possible activity reaching our latitudes for last night and tonight. Unfortunately the night will once again be pretty hazy and not so ideal for Northern Lights viewing. But even so, I think this solar forecast was a little over-interpreted, so do not be too upset people of RI and SE Mass...

For the update on this solar activity visit http://www.universetoday.com/

And for now, here's a nice picture of the Northern Lights from the shores of Lake Superior