Wednesday, September 29, 2010

Meet Nicole

Heavy rain swept across large areas of the east yesterday including Ontario and Quebec. Ottawa had 33mm putting it right on track for the wettest September on record. The current record is 173mm set in 1945. In Montreal about 30mm fell across the city with isolated pockets of heavier rain in late afternoon thunderstorms. We were on the warm and tropical side of the system with temperatures reaching 27C in Burlington, Vermont and 25C in Montreal. It remains muggy this morning with a gusty southwest winds that will continue most of the day. Our break from the rain will be short lived as another low pressure area is getting organized near Cuba this morning. The system is expected to develop into tropical storm Nicole and move northeast towards the Florida coast. The system has prompted tropical storm warnings for Florida, the Bahamas and Cuba this morning. The storm has yet to be named but is expected to reach tropical storm status today. The forecast track has it moving along the Florida coast and inland over the Carolina's. Heavy rain has drenched the Carolina coast in the last few days with over 14 inches at Wilmington including an inch in one hour this morning. Flooding is occurring there.

By late Thursday the storm is expected to be moving northward along the east coast of the US towards the northeast and New England. Flood watches have been posted for all of New York and Vermont, and rainfall amounts could be quite impressive on Thursday and Friday with 3-5 inches (75-125mm) forecast within a 24 hour period. Warnings and Watches may be extended north of the border into southern Quebec later today. More information will become available today as the forecast path becomes a little more clear. The precipitation will begin late Thursday in Montreal and taper off Friday. It will turn much colder this weekend.

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