Hanna, Ike and Josephine on the Scene

Gustav, Hanna, Ike and Josephine posing for a NOAA satellite image

The weather forecast for today and tomorrow is relatively straightforward but the crystal ball gets all sorts of cloudy beginning Friday. A coastal low off of New England may trigger a few isolated showers this afternoon and evening. Otherwise expect a mix of sun and clouds with a high in the mid 80s. Clouds will give way to sun tomorrow and the thermometer will make a valiant effort to reach 90. Unseasonably warm weather will continue into Friday, when the high will again reach the upper 80s.

Depending on what happens with Tropical Storm Hanna, Friday night, and especially Saturday, could be exceptionally wet and windy. The current best guess is that Hanna will regain hurricane strength before making landfall in South Carolina on Saturday morning. After coming ashore the storm is expected to take a turn to the northeast and zoom up the coast, bringing high winds and several inches of widespread rain to the city on Saturday. While this seems to be Hanna's most likely path, there's a great deal of uncertainty in that prediction.

Following in Hanna's heels are tropical storms Ike and Josephine. Ike, which should strengthen to hurricane intensity later today, is in the mid-Atlantic and is expected to take a path through the Bahamas similar to Hanna. Josephine is just off the Cape Verde islands and is not likely to become a hurricane as it moves westward across the ocean.