Beryl Escaping, Taking Heat and Humidity With Her
May 30, 2012; 10:11 AM
Wednesday, 11:30 a.m.
Over the past couple of days since making landfall in northeast Florida, Beryl has maintained a well-defined structure. Though the winds have not been up to tropical storm strength, there's been plenty of rain, with 1-3 inches common throughout northeast Florida, eastern Georgia and southeastern South Carolina into southern North Carolina over the past couple days. A few locations have seen even more rain. However, the remains of Beryl are accelerating to the northeast today, and it will soon take the last of the rain offshore with it.
That's not all that will be taken off the coast. Most of the record heat we've seen over the better part of the past week is about done. There may be a few places in the South that reach those levels this afternoon, but they will be the exceptions to the rule. The first of what will effectively be two front has already trimmed the record heat away from New England and the mid-Atlantic states. The passage of the second front this afternoon and tonight will turn temperatures back toward normal in the I-95 corridor, and clearly below it to the west. By tomorrow, the humidity will be gone as well.
The only place that will remain relatively warm and humid will the Gulf Coast region to Florida and the Southeast coast. Those areas will have to await the passage of one more storm before the lingering heat and humidity are taken care of. That storm will begin to take shape in the Plains this afternoon and tonight with some rain and thunderstorms increasing from South Dakota southward to North Texas. By tomorrow, low pressure will have become better organized and will head into the Ohio Valley. And where it rains tomorrow, it is going to the exact opposite of the Memorial Day weekend. Instead of record heat and humidity with temperatures in the 90s, it will be in the 50s and 60s with rain - much below normal.
As the low head into the eastern lake late Friday, there will be one more attempt at the very warm, sticky air over the eastern Gulf Coast and parts of the Southeast to come up the Eastern Seaboard, but with far less impact than we've seen the past couple of days. It will forestall the arrival of noticeably cooler air, yes, but even that won't be denied this weekend and early next week.
As the upper-level low forming over Quebec and eastern Ontario takes over this weekend, it will drive an upper-level trough into the East. In response, the heights will rise over the Rockies and western Plains, and that will lead to warming there this weekend. Look at the projected temperature anomalies for Sunday:
That's a pattern that isn't likely to change a lot going into the first full week of June.
The views expressed are those of the author and not necessarily those of AccuWeather, Inc. or AccuWeather.com