Even though school is in session, and high school football is getting underway… it is still summer!  And Mother Nature is not letting us forget that.  Today will be another unseasonably warm day, as we climb up near 90-degrees this afternoon.  We will be there again Saturday AND Sunday, as we get some good pool weather for one of the last weekends the pool is open!  The quiet weather is thanks to this large and slow-moving area of high pressure that has been with us for days:

The next change in weather comes as a cold front approaches early next week.  Scattered showers and thunderstorms could affect us by Sunday night… and the chance will then linger into Monday:

It’s not going to rain that whole time, but we can expect some activity through that time frame.  Just an FYI, the National Weather Service in Wilmington is in the process of upgrading their radar to Dual Pol!  This is a very exciting process, and will bring about MUCH more accurate now-casting and storm tracking in the near future.   Dual-polarization technology will give the radar the ability to collect data on the horizontal and vertical properties of weather (e.g., rain, hail).  This will provide more accurate precipitation estimates… will help to better depict the hail zone of a storm (and hail size)… and help to better determine precip type during winter storms.  Dual Pol can also provide  tornadic debris detection… with “debris balls” visible on radar when tracking a tornado.  Wow!  So much to be excited about with this new technology!!

SO… on Monday when we do have rain in the area, the Wilmington radar will be down.  But there is another option… the TDWR (Terminal Doppler Weather Radar) located at the Dayton International Airport.    Behind this front, temperatures will cool off a bit… and much of next week looks to be near-normal temperature wise.  Highs in the lower 80s… lows near 60-degrees.

All eyes are on Tropical Storm Isaac, which will be impacting Hispaniola and Cuba over the next 24-hours.  The storm is forecast to brush the Florida Keys early Monday before continuing on through the Gulf of Mexico.  This is where it could strengthen into a hurricane before making landfall.  Right now, the forecast path takes it into the Florida panhandle–near Mobile, AL:

But you can see the “cone of uncertainty” which illustrates that landfall could actually be anywhere between New Orleans and Tallahassee.  We’ll continue to monitor this storm, and you can also keep tabs over the weekend here: WDTN Tropical Page.  The remnants of Isaac still could affect OUR area towards the end of next week… stay tuned.

Enjoy your WEEKEND!!
Jamie
www.twitter.com/WDTN_Jamie
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