11:19pm: The last whimpers of rain are winding down in the Appalachians. There will be some real storms, albeit briefly, in northern Minnesota tomorrow afternoon, in the event you are in the mood for radar watching.

10:14AM: There are two very similar, ongoing tragedies in the world right now that you may have been hearing about. The flash floods in both the Himalayas and the Grand Canyon have a couple of similarities. Notably, the flash flooding was enhanced greatly by the terrain, with water funneling into one course (the Trishuli and Colorado Rivers, respectively) and the suffering has been continued because in both areas, it is the monsoon season. The origins are different beyond that, including a seismic event and glacial collapse along the Nepalese border with China, and in Arizona, it has been a matter of persistent, torrential rains. The take away for me, for right now, is to respect flash flood warnings when they are issued for your area. They are very geographically specific, and as we have been reminded, flash floods can have devastating consequences.

1:50PM: Following up on an item from yesterday: It is presently 101 degrees in Wichita.

7:15: Heat will absolutely be building into the middle of the country this week. Wichita’s WFO isn’t scared though. They have a wedge on the map without a heat advisory in place

More accurately, it’s late August, and most folks in southern Kansas are pretty well acclimated to warm weather.

4:54PM: Do you remember going back to school, and it was still warm and wonderful out all day? Well, your kids will get to learn those hard lessons too, if they live in the middle of the country.

6:37: The smattering of showers that were expected in the northern Plains were fairly significant this morning, but the evening wet weather in the western Great Lakes is sparse. Just a lazy, late August weekend.

9:09AM: In a sign that the seasons are changing, the SPC outlook day over day is showing that risk areas are transitioning west to east over the course of the next few days. That is indicative of a wave pattern actually shifting, rather than a summertime, stagnant pattern, simply parked in the middle of the country. Congrats to those of you who enjoy fall. It’s coming!

2:00PM: We have the first enhanced risk I’ve seen in a while. It’s for the Texas Panhandle, and of the highest surprise, it is for hail and wind, and there isn’t even a 2% bound area for tornadoes.

6:14PM: We had a pretty rainy weekend and beginning to the week, but can we live with this, Baltimore?

1:23PM:

You know what I don’t see in this forecast from Key West? Anything unusual. In fact, it is eerily quiet in the Atlantic basin here in late August.

1:06PM: The SPC is definitely promising an outlook that is very late summer. There are slight risk blobs coving vast tracts of the northern Rockies and Northern High Plains. There is also a marginal risk across New York. I can confidently say that I expect more severe reports from New York.

10:03PM All right, i was wrong! Storms in New York never materialized, and as always, the storms in the Plains were big hail producers. Probably for the best that there weren’t too many reports in New York, as that would have affected far more people.

10:36PM This incorrect prediction is staying with me tonight. I just want to remind everyone (and myself) that Victoria-Weather has been the best forecaster through the summer so far.

8:07PM: Hey! I’ve been on vacation and am now returned to hear about flooding in Indiana and a hurricane in Hawai’i. In the near future, Tuesday looks like the most interesting day on the immediate horizon:

3:39PM: This is too hot.

10:20PM On the other side of the picture, this gentle rain in Minnesota is helping keep temperatures cool, and if you are the type that enjoys white noise as you sleep, this should be just about right.