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Hurricane-caused rain expected Tuesday
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Published: November 9, 2009
Hurricane Ida, running out of steam as it encounters the November chill of the United States, will have enough strength to bring a daylong rain Tuesday to the Charlotte metro region, forecasters say.
The rain will end a streak of nice weather that began over the weekend and produced high temperatures in the 70s Sunday.
More 70-degree-plus weather is forecast today.
But high clouds will be on the increase today, as Hurricane Ida moves toward expected landfall early Tuesday on the Florida panhandle coast. Ida had top sustained winds of 105 mph Sunday, but those winds had decreased to 90 mph this morning.
In November, west-to-east winds across the United States are much stronger than in late summer, during the peak of hurricane season. In addition, water temperatures in the northern Gulf of Mexico are considerably cooler than a few months ago.
So as Ida approaches the U.S. coast, those upper-atmospheric winds are blowing apart the hurricane's thunderstorms, and cooler water is sapping its strength.
A hurricane warning remains in affect for a stretch of the Gulf coast from Pascagoula, Miss., to the Florida panhandle. By the time Ida arrives and moves inland, forecasters say, the storm will change from a tropical system to a typical fall-winter storm.
What does all that mean for the Charlotte metro region?
Rain is expected to arrive Tuesday morning, possibly around daybreak, and then continue during the day. Temperatures will be much cooler than today, held in the middle to upper 50s.
The National Weather Service predicts between 1 3/4 and 3 1/4 inches of rain will fall in the Charlotte area between Tuesday morning and late Wednesday morning, when the system is expected to move away. But other forecasting services predict less rain -- between 3/4 and 1 1/2 inches -- for the region.
A flash flood watch has been posted for much of Georgia, and for parts of extreme western South Carolina.
Dry and cool weather is forecast to return Thursday, with warming temperatures but continued dry conditions for the weekend.
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