Morning Express with Robin Meade

Check out the path of Rina from the National Hurricane Center… looks like one of Carlos’ tee box shots. SLICE!

Hurricane Rina is looking haggard, and that’s great news for Cancun. Yesterday the storm starting gulping in dry air from the north and that started her decline. Rina should hit the NE coast of the Yucatan Peninsula tonight or tomorrow morning, and then head East towards Cuba. By this time the southwest wind shear will be cutting what’s left of the storm down even further, and at this point it doesn’t appear to be a threat to S FL or the US. I’ll have the forecast from the NHC for you on the show.

Hurricane Rina has changed little in the past 12 hours, but is right on the cusp of being a major hurricane. The winds all night and into this morning were around 110 mph, a Cat. 2 (major hurricanes are Cat 3 and above, with winds of more than 110 mph). The satellite presentation looks pretty good, with the outflow clouds blowing out in a circle. That’s an indication to me that the storm is not being disturbed by any wind shear yet, and still has a good chance of strengthening a little further before it hits or brushes into the northern Yucatan Peninsula tomorrow. Cancun and Cozumel are under hurricane warnings right now. Rina has been crawling to the West this morning, but once it gets a little closer to the Westerly’s it should pick up it’s forward speed and bend towards Cuba or the FL Straights. The land interaction near Cancun, wind shear, and cooler water temps should buzz down the hurricane’s strength in about 36 hours, and that’s great news. The FL keys and Southern FL may start feeling the effects of this storm by the weekend, but by that time Rina should be down to a tropical storm. I’ll update you again tomorrow on the strength/path.

The other big story is the major snow storm over the Rockies. Denver (again, record high of 80F on Monday) has switched from rain to snow and could see around a foot pile up around the metro area by this evening! The storm itself should slide into the Plains tonight and take the snow with it, but rain and snow will also hit WY, NM, and the OK/TX panhandles. I’ll have the radar and warnings for you.

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!

Hey how are you, good Monday. Anybody else smash the alarm clock this morning?

Rough weather is starting this morning over KY and OH with heavy rain and even a few tornado warnings earlier. It’s all wrapped up with the huge low pressure area that is just not moving. Essentially it’s a cool pocket of air in the mid and upper levels of the Troposphere. The low at the surface is almost directly under the low in the upper levels, vertically stacked. These things are very slow movers, since they are cut off from the main Westerlies that would usually push it Eastward. The main result is heavy rain for the Great Lakes and OH Valley today, with more storms firing south and to the East. I’ll have the latest radar and track any severe weather for you this morning. Air travel will be affected by these storms, plus some low clouds around NYC and Philly. I’ll update you on the show.

Looking at the satellite picture in the MW this morning you’d think there was a hurricane circulating around. It’s the same storm that has been there since This weekend, and it is cut off from the main tropical and subtropical jet streams. That means there is nothing to push this thing out, so it’s going nowhere . Just like my DWTS application...

Rain and storms will be ongoing all afternoon around the NE, MW and S around this storm center. It looks awesome on the satellite, I’ll show it to you.

It will be one of those days for the East coast that travelers hate. A strong cold front is slowly pushing eastward from the MW this morning, and the atmosphere is juiced up and warm just ahead. It’s the last full day of summer (Fall arrives at 5:05am EDT tomorrow) and it will definitely feel like it with the humidity and warm temps in the East. A solid deck of clouds is draped from ME to FL with heavy pockets of rain all around. The bottom line is you’d have a better chance of getting plunked by a falling satellite than getting to the major East Coast airports on time today.

Rain is falling heavily on the back side of the front and under an upper-level storm in OK and AR, and some is fracturing away from the main energy and falling in TX. This is great news, but it won’t be much. I’ll have the latest radars for you. The great lakes will feature lots of clouds as well, but the heavy rain should stay away. The Rockies and West look nice for traveling until you reach WA. Rain is back for the Puget Sound region and spots all around.