Flood Watches stretch from Boston to the Carolinas through Saturday as a potent front mixes with a plume of tropical moisture to drop several inches of rain along much of the Interstate 95 corridor.
The giant heat dome high-pressure system that baked the Carolinas and surrounding states last week is now over the Atlantic. That extra high pressure, along with Saharan dust and dry air, is keeping the tropics calm. No tropical development is expected for at least the next week.
The flow around the mega high is creating a river of tropical moisture from Florida up the East Coast to New England, however. The tropical disturbance off the Southeast coast we were watching yesterday is contributing some extra moisture, but that system will die out over the Southeast. The moisture river is combining with the old front that was originally pushed south by the remnants of Tropical Storm Beryl to produce a rainy day along the East Coast.
Extra-strong high-pressure systems don’t move very quickly, which is why super-hot weather can stick around for days. In this case, the rainy pattern will continue in the South. In the North, however, the moisture river’s flow will re-orient itself to aim offshore tomorrow.
Meanwhile, massive power outages will continue in Houston well into next week. The National Weather Service has a Heat Advisory in place because so many people don’t have A/C. The actual feels-like temperatures are “only” forecast to be in the low 100s, which is not excessively hot for southeast Texas, but you can imagine how miserable it has been since Monday for people without air conditioning. At night it’s been typically warm and very humid.