Tropical Storm and Storm Surge Watches for the North Carolina Outer Banks; Hot in the Mid-Mississippi Valley

Tropical Storm conditions and coastal flooding are possible in the North Carolina Outer Banks beginning late Wednesday. Tropical Storm and Storm Surge Watches are in effect. Major Hurricane Erin is expected to bring life threatening surf and rip currents along the East Coast beaches this week. Hot to extremely hot temperatures are forecast through Tuesday in the Mid-Mississippi Valley. Read More >

On Monday, August 21st, 2017, all of of North America experienced a solar eclipse of the sun. The path of the total solar eclipse was from the Plateau to much of southeast Tennessee to southwest North Carolina. The maximum solar eclipse occurred between 233 and 236 pm ET. Due to the moon’s blockage of the suns solar radiation, temperatures (red line) dropped as much as 10 degrees between 2 and 3 pm Monday afternoon. However, the temperature drop varied greatly across east Tennessee, southwest Virginia, and southwest North Carolina. The dewpoint temperature (green line), which is measure of moisture in the air, generally increased during the eclipse. The graphs below show the different temperature and dewpoint observation traces across southwest Virginia, east Tennessee, and southwest North Carolina.