Summer Finale. Gustav on the Gulf. Hanna Could Hit Us

Labor Day is often viewed as the end of summer. At least since it marks the end of the State Fair, and kids are back in school. Heck, even the leaves have started to turn- but I will have to save that discussion until this tropical week ends...
I heard a story on the radio early this morning on my way to work... The New York area beaches have had a dramatic drop in visitors this summer. The reporter mentioned the lack of 90 degree days as the reason...and I think we have had a similar set up down here. Does it seem like we have not had much of a summer? Here you can see that the number of 90F degree days have dropped off each month this summer. June- 9 days, July- 8 days, August- only 4 days.

Hurricane GUSTAV
Just a watching game now. You can track along on the Tropics tab above (main web site). My only question, as a broadcast journalist- all the coverage you will see on TV today will be from reporters and cameras in locations that were evacuated. How safe can they be?

Tropical Storm Hanna
Here is the overnight (spaghetti) 6 model plot. As you can see, there are a quite a few solutions, all of which take this on shore. The red line is the GFS, which brings it over Baltimore- after trekking through North Carolina and losing some strength. At the forward speed, this model does have it as a minimal Tropical Storm when reaching us. Below is the GFS Model for Friday night. You can see the center of the storm just to our south, and heading our way. This model is important since it is one of the primary models we use for our mid to long range weather, and can take over from the Tropical Models by adding in land data those don't incorperate. This is the second day I have seen this scenario, so it is worth watching for consistency. This is just one of many possibilities. As of now, we have at least 5 days to prepare...