Two weekends ago, meteorologists were diligently watching the Gulf of Mexico in anticipation of the development of Tropical Storm Delta. Delta did develop into a hurricane and moved through the Mississippi Delta (no relation) and towards the Great Lakes. It was tough to think of the tropics before that in Atlanta, as the temperatures, particularly the morning lows around the 50 degree mark, were positively autumnal. The Weather Channel did earn victory on the forecast. They’ve been in Atlanta getting pumpkin spied lattes for a couple weeks now, and surely had some more intimate knowledge of the conditions. Actuals: October 5th, High 77, Low 50 October 6th, High 79, Low 51
Wow. What a wild month September was. Then again, September is the wildest of them all, almost every year. There are hurricanes, wild fires. every thing that can go wrong thanks to the stored heat of summer. No wonder, then, that it was Forecast.io, the robot army, that could keep the level head needed to secure this honor.
We will travel from one capital city to the other over the next week or so, headed from the bustling Atlanta to the more serene Olympia over the course of 5 days. The drive will cover 2718 miles at a pace of about 68mph, and with a goal of 544 miles on any given day. I think it’s time we pack our things. Will we see any other capital cities along the way?
DAY ONE (Saturday)
Atlanta, Georgia
For the beginning of our long, cross country drive, all eyes will be to our south, where we will need to monitor Hurricane Delta, which will be expiring in the Mississippi Valley. A dangerous feeder band of showers and storms angling into Delta from the Tennessee Valley. Most of these will be rain storms with little lightning and thunder, but even without lightning or thunder, rogue tornadoes are always a possibility. As Delta erodes and we head north, the rain threat will dissipate, about as we cross the Ohio into Illinois, but it will still be overcast at day’s end. Day’s end will be in Caseyville, a St. Louis suburb.
DAY TWO (Sunday) Low pressure developing in the plains will be robbed of moisture by the remnants of Delta, but the pressure squeeze of remnant hurricane, to ridge, to deepening area of low pressure will make for a very windy day as we head for the Plains. We will come very close to Kansas and Nebraska, but we will stay on the eastern side of the Missouri River before finally dipping across into far southeast South Dakota, and spending the night in North Sioux City.
DAY THREE (Monday) There will be a distinct chill to the air as we spend most of our day in South Dakota. A cold front will pass us in the evening on Sunday with little to no fanfare. The after effects will be notable, as temperatures may struggle to climb above freezing. Still, it will be dry, which is a pleasant bit of news. We will clip Wyoming and make it to the ghost town of Hammond in southeastern Montana to end the day.
DAY FOUR (Tuesday) This drive is looking very familiar. We have recently taken a drive across Montana for another long road trip, and our endpoints before we reached Bellingham, and that we stopped at before we reach Olympia are very similar. This time, we’re going to stop in Missoula after a pretty clear day. The back side of the system we saw in North Sioux City may leave a few whitecaps in western Montana, but it will be dry for our arrival.
DAY FIVE (Wednesday) A pretty good system will move into the Pacific Northwest from the Gulf of Alaska in the early to middle part of next week. As we get going Wednesday, be sure to drive those mountain curves with caution, as they may be rain slicked, with some snow again possible above our elevation. By the time we reach the Cascade rain shadow in central and Eastern Washington, it will e as though nothing happened. Thanks, geography! When we reach Puget Sound, the Gulf of Alaska storm will have departed, but low clouds, drizzle and fog will remain. It will be a little bit clearer in Olympia, but still a bit dismal. Oh, and to answer the question at the top, despite all this driving will account for but one other capital city.
There was a lot of weather to talk about in September, particularly in the tropics. I’m happy to report, however, that we were able to keep our touch for forecasting across the country. Forecasts for Bellingham were pretty unified across the board, and the verified weather at the end of September was a carbon copy from one day to another, but I can claim that Victoria-Weather was able to secure the victory all by ourselves, even if it was by the narrowest of margins. Actuals: September 29th, High 74, Low 48 September 30th, High 74, Low 48
Halloween should be the scariest thing this time of year, between COVID and the election, I’m not sure that will be the case. Hopefully, aside from Delta, the weather won’t be added to the list of scary things this autumn.
Kingston, New York
Santa Rosa, California
Wenatchee, Washington Road Trip from Santa Rosa to Wenatchee
Hanford, California Road Trip from Champaign, Illinois to Hanford
We’re driving southward today, trying to get to Atlanta before Hurricane Delta finds the coast. We should be able to do it, as our drive will only last a day and cover 505 miles, doing so at a pace of a little over 62mph. Try to limit stops and use hand sanitizer!
Terre Haute, Indiana
Delta hit the Yucatan this morning and is spilling into the Gulf tonight. It pulsed down before it hit Cancun, and will be weakened when it arrives in the Gulf. Still, it’s previous intensity, and further ramping up will entrap nearby atmospheric moisture, and while the eastern US is under high pressure, the sea breezes will be turned off too. The entire drive from Terre Haute to Atlanta will be under mostly clear skies, with seasonable warmth.
All right, Weather Channel, we’re coming for your back yard.
At 852PM, ET, Atlanta was reporting a temperature of 66 degrees with mostly cloudy skies. Tropical Storm Gamma was interfacing with low pressure in the Gulfstream, with clouds streaming across the southeastern United States. Atlanta was at the northern end of of the band of clouds, but Atlanta was the only place that was reporting anything close to overcast conditions. High pressure is building into the Plains, and that will build into north Georgia as well, rendering the next two days quite pleasant. As Gamma unfurls, there might be a band of showers over central Georgia on Tuesday morning, but nothing well organized or long lived will transpire. Over the long term, Tropical Depression 26 bears monitoring not only for the Gulf, but specifically for the Atlanta area by next week. Tomorrow – Partly cloudy, High 78, Low 55 Tuesday – Sunny, High 79, Low 57
TWC: Tomorrow – Sunny skies, High 76, Low 52 Tuesday – Partly cloudy, High 78, Low 55
AW: Tomorrow – Pleasant with plenty of sun, High 78, Low 53 Tuesday – Pleasant with plenty of sun, High 78, Low 57
NWS: Tomorrow – Sunny High 77, Low 53 Tuesday – Sunny High 76, Low 55
WB: Tomorrow – Sunny High 75, Low 53 Tuesday – Sunny High 77, Low 56
WN: Tomorrow – Mostly sunny, High 77, Low 55 Tuesday – Mostly sunny, High 76, Low 54
FIO: Tomorrow – Clear throughout the day. High 79, Low 54 Tuesday – Clear throughout the day. High 78, Low 57
Atlanta looks ok today, but as I said, the Gulf bears monitoring.
It’s autumn, and it ure feels that way east of the Rockies, even if that’s not the case along the west coast. We’ll take a 4 day run to Puget Sound, which will cover 2182 miles. There is a lot of interstate contained on this route, even if we are covering some high terrain, so the pace will be about 68.2 mph, good for 545 miles a day.
DAY ONE (Thursday)
Michigan City, Indiana
One of the factors in the Upper Midwest being cooler than normal is the presence of deep low pressure over Labrador, which is swinging more cold air and troughing into the area. It will clear up today in Michigan City, but more drizzle and clouds will emerge by tomorrow morning, and will be the situation through most of our Thursday drive. Some drips and drops will spatter our windshield through Chicago, Milwaukee and Madison, and probably won’t truly clear up until after we pass through LaCrosse. We’ll make it to Lakefield, Minnesota before we pull off for the night.
DAY TWO (Friday) High pressure is entrenched west of that deep area of low pressure. There might be a few high streaking clouds over the western Dakotas, but I would hard pressed to believe they will touch the ground. We’ll traverse South Dakota and clip northeastern Wyoming before we stop in Boyes, Montana, a ghost town in the southeastern corner of the state. It’s going to start warming up by the end of the day.
DAY THREE (Saturday) The entirety of our day will be spent in the windswept prairies of eastern Montana, and the peaks of western Montana that will be significantly less windswept, and definitely not as cool as you might hope. We’ll make it to Wye, on the northwest side of Missoula, and call it a night.
DAY FOUR (Sunday) The best news for our Sunday drive is that the threat for wildfires in the Pacific Northwest has significantly lessened. It will be dry and unseasonably warm in the interior west, before it gets a bit more comfortably as we head north from Seattle into Bellingham.
By Nick Kelly / Faithlife Corporation – Faithlife Corporation, CC BY-SA 4.0, https://commons.wikimedia.org/w/index.php?curid=37611512
It’s interesting how things can change, isn’t it? Usually, when we consider a forecast for a place like western Washington, we would wonder about the threat for rain, but now we are left speculating about the continued impact of so little rain.
At 1253PM, PT, Bellingham was reporting a temperature of 69 degrees with clear skies. There isn’t much going on in the Pacific Northwest, and the only activity on the west coast satellite imagery was smoke emanating from fires in northern California. Strong low pressure in the Gulf of Alaska is barricaded by high pressure in the west coast. A strong ridge aided by some southerly flow will ensure that Washington remains clear and dry for at least the next two days. Tomorrow – High 75, Low 52 Wednesday – High 76, Low 52
TWC: Tomorrow – Mainly sunny High 72, Low 53 Wednesday – Sunny. High 75, Low 54
AW: Tomorrow – Pleasant with plenty of sun High 71, Low 52 Wednesday – Warm and smoky with hazy sunshine High 72, Low 52
NWS: Tomorrow – Sunny, High 73, Low 53 Wednesday – Sunny, High 74, Low 55
WB: Tomorrow – Sunny, High 71, Low 52 Wednesday – Sunny, High 73, Low 56
WN: Tomorrow – Mostly sunny High 74, Low 53 Wednesday – Mostly sunny, High 75, Low 55
FIO: Tomorrow – Clear throughout the day. High 72, Low 51 Wednesday – Clear throughout the day. High 74, Low 55
Pretty quiet in western Washington, but no news isn’t always good news. Here is a look at the satellite with fires blazing across western Washington.
Youtube user Tyler Spiedel had a Go Pro camera set up as the now infamous Iowa derecho blew through Cedar Rapids. For those that weren’t in it, it is a good demonstration of the sustained intensity of this particular storm, and the destruction it caused. Derechos look in many ways like hurricanes more than they do tornadoes.
Fortunately for Midwesterners, human and otherwise (see: The deer at about 40 seconds) storms of this intensity are extremely rare. When they do arise, though, the devastation is widespread.
