Morning Express with Robin Meade

Yesterday’s storm was a dud for DC as temps refused to get cold enough for all the slushy snow to accumulate to much. Although 2,200 flights canceled tell a different tale and another pretty ugly day is shaping up for travel again.

The biggest problem may not necessarily be the snow (although 1 to 3 inches of slushy stuff could fall in NYC and Boston) but the gusty winds and the potential for coastal flooding and beach erosion. The winds alone could gust over 40 mph in the aforementioned cities.

How’s it going everybody? I'm watching a powerful early season snow maker in the Rockies this morning. Rain is also circulating around this thing from ID/WY/WA/OR/CA to AZ and NM. A few break away showers are spilling into OK and KS, but the severe weather will occur north of there this afternoon. The Front Range will get the storms today that produce large hail and gusty winds as the energy heads East out of the mountains. Winter storm warnings are in effect for UT and CO right now, looking at an additional 6-12” of snow today!

The plains will see the wind howl from the SW, so red flag warnings have been issued for the upper MW to the Central Plains. Cold temps are back in the NE with frost/freeze warnings. The SE will be mostly dry except for the FL Coast. The steady E wind will hammer away today bringing in some pockets of rain from the Keys to J’ville. With that High pressure anchored north of you through the weekend, I’m thinking that wind direction/speed won’t change for a few days.

How’s it going everybody? I'm watching a powerful early season snow maker in the Rockies this morning. Rain is also circulating around this thing from ID/WY/WA/OR/CA to AZ and NM. A few break away showers are spilling into OK and KS, but the severe weather will occur north of there this afternoon. The Front Range will get the storms today that produce large hail and gusty winds as the energy heads East out of the mountains. Winter storm warnings are in effect for UT and CO right now, looking at an additional 6-12” of snow today!

The plains will see the wind howl from the SW, so red flag warnings have been issued for the upper MW to the Central Plains. Cold temps are back in the NE with frost/freeze warnings. The SE will be mostly dry except for the FL Coast. The steady E wind will hammer away today bringing in some pockets of rain from the Keys to J’ville. With that High pressure anchored north of you through the weekend, I’m thinking that wind direction/speed won’t change for a few days.

For the first time this season I came to work with a coat. Found $1.32 in change in the pockets! Nice start to the day, it bought me ¼ cup of a grande moch-fashizzle alpa-chino at Starbucks.

Cold and dry air has been blasting southward all weekend in the East and South, behind the old storm that is anchored over the NE. This is the big wind field that caused all the turbulence for the fliers this weekend. It’ll produce more rain/low clouds and wind today for the NE and Mid Atlantic before it finally gets the boot Wednesday afternoon. Showers are falling in OH and MI right now too, and some of that is mixing with snow in the highest elevations of WV this morning. Once you pull away from there, it’ll be dry and warm to about UT and AZ. A few showers will develop today and that may affect you in Las Vegas too.

A weather pattern shift is finally going to take place today for the MW and NE. That stubborn, slow-moving storm that has dumped heavy rain for days on the region will get the bum’s rush out the door to the East by a sharp cold front dropping down from Canada.

Check out the map. The brown solid lines are isobars (lines of equal surface air pressure), the green lines are forecasted rainy spots, and you can see the blue cold fronts and red warm fronts. That cold front over WI to KS is the one that will boot the Low (Red L) from it’s perch over Ontario!

The thunder in AR is making it louder than a kindergarten class on Double Mocha Cappuccino Day. Oh yeah, welcome back to school for some of you!

Storms are plowing through the Plains and into the Midwest this morning, and will continue into the afternoon. Watch out KS, AR, OK, MO, and NE for gusty winds and large hail. I’ll have the latest radar on the show. The rain should total 2-3” in the most persistent storms through the morning, so some local flash flooding is a possible, too.

Tropical storm Don is edging closer to the South Texas coast this morning - and should hit land sometime late tonight or early tomorrow morning between Brownsville and Matagorda. The storm itself looks healthier on this morning's satellite, but it's still facing some wind shear on the northern side that is helping to keep it from developing further. Add in the dry air near the Texas coastline in the upper levels (tropical systems feed on moist air, too), and Don should only get to about 65 mph before it hits the beach. The steering winds for the storm are from the huge high pressure ridge over the S/MW/SW blowing it WNW. That ridge is actually gaining strength this morning, causing Don to turn westward... meaning the chance of good rain is almost out the door for Northern/Central Texas. My fingers are crossed, but the rain field just doesn’t look too big. Three to five inches are likely for southern Texas.

The upper half of the nation is active this morning, too. There are plenty of impulses running through the atmosphere from the MW to the NE, and tough storms with heavy rain and frequent lightning have been hitting from Chicago to Buffalo and beyond. Ill have the forecast for you on the show.

Here we go again in the MW and Mid South. Storms are rolling into AR and TN early today, ahead of a cold front that will bring more severe weather to the South this afternoon. The main thing I can see now is the constant lightning over the TN River Valley, and that whole schmear will refire today in MS, AL, GA, and the Carolinas. Watch out for damaging wind gusts, too. You can see those conditions on today's map:

NOAA Quantitative Precipitation Forecasts

*Meteorologist Jim Kosek from accuweather.com is filling in for "Morning Express with Robin Meade's" Bob Van Dillen this morning:

FIRST WEEKEND OF SUMMER HAS STARTED AND HAPPY B-DAY CHOPPER!

So sales for the morning-after pill tripled in an English county the night of the royal wedding. Something was in the air that night... probably feet! What’s this have to do with weather, you ask? Nothing.

Let's get on topic. The slow-moving storm over the Great Lakes is trailing a cold front to the south right now, and it's tapping into some Gulf moisture and producing heavy rain along that coastline. Pockets of rain and storms are also sailing through the East coast and then arcing back to the Great Lakes now. Some heavy rain is hitting the ATL area now, so some delays will probably affect travelers right off the bat today. Storms will be ongoing in the NYC and Philly areas, so expect delays up there as well. Severe storms packing damaging wind and large hail will roll across the MW and NE, and then back to the Central Plains this afternoon.The heavy rain potential in the Hudson Valley has prompted flood watches up there, and the foul weather will edge to New England this afternoon too. Check out the 24-hour rainfall projection.