Monday, August 27th
Friday, August 31st
There’s something about the tropical systems that begin with the letter “I” that seem to have an affinity for the Commonwealth. In the past decade, Virginia has seen a significant impact from hurricanes Isabel, Ivan, and Irene. Now we’re seeing another strong disturbance in the Atlantic Basin that has a good chance to become our next named storm. If it becomes a tropical storm, it will be called Isaac. The track of Isaac is still very much in question, as is nearly always the case with a tropical system a week away from landfall. Both the GFS and Euro are favoring a Florida landfall, with the GFS showing a sharp turn to the north and up the East Coast. The graphic above shows the model projection for next Monday the 27th and next Friday the 31st. This is just one of many scenarios that could play out with this system, but is certainly worth watching very closely. I would suspect that if our recent trend of a progressive pattern of troughs moving through the eastern U.S continues, a turn up the east coast would be unlikely. I’ll have updates in the coming days and let you know if we need to prepare for another “I” storm in Virginia. Click here for frequent updates on my facebook page. -Zach
