Never a Dull Moment

Yesterday the temperature reached 82F at BWI. In the 80s for a second day in a row, and all I could hear was how great it was. From golf to yard work- well I think the golf was the great part. It was a beautiful day, and I'm a cold weather guy. The surge of warm air was not a surprise, and still not a record. It is quite common to have a few warm spells in the fall, and the warmer spells will be balanced out by a dramatic cool down this weekend. But don't complain... first, we've had a good stretch of good weekends. Secondly, when you consider what has been happening across the country (and beyond), we've been pretty lucky.
Here you can see the highlights across the country (map coming soon):

FIRE: There were 2 wild fires that remained unchecked outside of LA yesterday. Fueled by the warm dry Santa Anna winds- so far a total of 49 structures have burned.

SNOW: A storm in the Rockies in the past week has helped 2 Ski Resorts open today in Colorado. Loveland Ski Area announced this morning that it will open for the season at 8:30 a.m. Wednesday. Arapahoe Basin, which originally planned a 9 a.m. opening Wednesday, switched it today to 8:30 a.m. after Loveland's plans were announced. It's like gas stations battling across the street from each other. More can be found here.

Warm and Quiet: That is the story from Maryland to Mississippi. That's where temperatures were averaging the low 80s.

Hurricane OMAR! This was upgraded overnight. As if it wasn't bad enough that Puerto Rico and the US Virgin Islands had a 6.1 earthquake last weekend, they are bracing for this Category 1 storm by this Thursday. the projection here for the weekend is moving safely farther away from the Eastern US.