Same ol' Sol

Now

Mostly sunny, warm, humid. Probably one reason October is Matt's favorite month is that it has, on average, by far the highest number of clear days (10.7, over 10% higher than its nearest rival, September, although the month just ended had 15 clear days).

That's not the case today as persistent clouds overnight and even some morning drizzle have kept the low so far today to the balmy midnight reading of 68°. On the other hand, a more southerly than easterly wind has allowed an abundance of sunshine to push temperatures into the low and even mid 80s in some places this afternoon. Humidity has also increased; dewpoints in the mid and upper 60s are nearly 10° higher than yesterday.

CapitalWeather.com chart from NWS data, photo © Kevin Ambrose

Tonight and Tomorrow

Warm, humid. Some low clouds and patchy fog are likely to form again tonight; lows will be in the mid 60s downtown to the upper 50s in the 'burbs. Any morning clouds should burn off in time to produce a mainly sunny day tomorrow with highs 83-87°.

For the outlook through the rest of the week and into the Columbus Day weekend, scroll on down to Jason's post below.

Tropical Topics

There are no active storms in the tropical Atlantic or eastern Pacific, but the National Hurricane Center is still keeping an eye on a low pressure area in the eastern Gulf. The reconnaissance flight scheduled for today was called off, but this system still has some potential for development. Meanwhile, another area a little east of the Bahamas is encountering more favorable upper level winds and could become a tropical depression in the next couple of days.

The Gray team at Colorado State have revised their hurricane season forecast (again).

Book Sale

Get 'em while they're hot: As a public service, we waive the usual Amazon referral fee to note that the Oxford University Press has several weather-related books in its Fall Sale:

• Oxford Dictionary of Weather
• Understanding Weather: A Visual Approach
• Hurricanes of the North Atlantic

None of these titles come with any recommendation from the management, staff, or advertisers of CapitalWeather.com, but this is a very well respected publisher, especially in the area of reference books.