Desperately Needing Some of that Rain NOW!

It has been just about 3 weeks now since we have seen any kind of measurable rain! The EPA the other day announced that we (the Tri-State) are in a drought...umm, HELLO? I've been saying that a week after we haven't had rain. Oh, that's right, the week before the consecutive heat waves we saw.  Couldn't EPA report a drought watch or a precautionary warning for a drought before we even reached that stage? We have seen heat wave after heat wave, still no rain, and people everywhere are using up our water sources to save plants and lawns from burning...Let's think about this people...

Latest U.S. Drought Assessment: http://www.cpc.ncep.noaa.gov

NOAA's State of Climate has just released a report stating that this Summer was the fourth warmest Summer in U.S. records. According to the report, the average temperature for the United States in August was 75.0 degrees F, which is about 2 degrees F about the long-term (1901-2000) average. July's average precipitation was 2.41 inches, which is 0.19 inch below the 1901-2001 average.
As we all know, it has been hotter then you know... in the North East, many of the Tri- State major cities with Central Park, New York City, Trenton, New Jersey, and Philadelphia, Pennsylvania breaking record high temperatures this Summer. The main culprit for such hot weather was a pretty consistent High Pressure setup that dominated the weather pattern, especially this past month. According to the State of Climate report, The Northeast region of the U.S. "experienced its warmest January-August period with an average temperature more than 3.4 degrees F above the long-term average. Maine, New Hampshire, Vermont, Rhode Island, Connecticut, and New Jersey each had their warmest year-to-date period and all of the Northeastern states ranked in the top 10% of warmest periods on record."
With the consistent heat waves, it's no wonder the major cities did not have a brown out like last Summer. I must say though, the electric companies did do a terrific job in preventing this. I do remember losing my power just for a few hours due to a heat related incident, but considering it could have been a lot worse, this was not all to bad.

Image Courtesy from NOAA

As far as precipitation goes, throughout the contiguous U.S. rainfall was highly variable which is the typical pattern for late summer. The overall precipitation average was below normal with 11 states experiencing below normal precipitation (including New Jersey and Pennsylvania), and another 11 states experiencing above normal precipitation with the Northern Midwest being the wettest.

Just a note: I looked at the camera on my phone to try to upload Hurricane Earl photos to find out that the phone never came with a phone-PC adaptor...major bummer considering I did get some great beach shots. After this experience I now know to keep a fully charged (with an actual battery this time) camera always on me at all times.

Near term weather:
Increasing clouds this evening with a chance of showers (Lord knows how much we really need here!).  Becoming more humid though the evening. If the air moistens up enough we will see rain, most likely Sunday and throughout the day. Otherwise it will remain mostly cloudy much until early Monday. Thunderstorm probability is low.

There is a beautiful triple-point located over Ohio (at the time of the image)..Oh, how synoptic met. haunts me today...This 'point' will move towards the South of us and remain South which will, unfortunately for us, keep any kind of significant precipitation and convection further Southeast of the I95 corridor areas. Note: the overall precipitation values are highest where the potential for convection is greatest, which is not going to be by central New Jersey this time around. The next chance at a shot of rain from this system will be late Sunday into Monday as a trailing cold front from the Northwest moves through that looks to carry a bit more moisture, even then fingers are still crossed to see some rain. Temperatures will remain in the mid 70s falling to the upper 50s, to lower 60s in towards the evening.

Keep an umbrella handy!

~ V.S.