Wettest Summer Ever Within Reach

Ack! There's way too much going on in the weather department. For brevity's sake the activity can be boiled down to one word: rain. Looking at the satellite image above you can see three rainmakers: Tropical Storm Danny off the coast, a bunch of tropical moisture along the East Coast, and a bunch of clouds associated with a cold front that stretches from Michigan down to Texas.

This one-two-three precipitation punch is likely to make 2009 the wettest summer ever. 1975 holds the record with 22.4 inches in June, July and August. As of 11 this morning the rain gauge at Belvedere Castle has measured 20.52 inches for those months. Less than two inches to go!

Tropical moisture ahead of Danny will bring showers and thunderstorms through this evening, but especially early this afternoon. Look for a high in the mid 70s. Danny isn't much of a tropical storm, but he'll be close enough to the city to produce prodigious amounts of rain. Two to four inches of rain, are expected between late tonight and tomorrow evening. It'll warm up to near 80 tomorrow.

The rain begins to clear out on Sunday as the Midwestern cold front approaches. Actually it is two fronts. One late Saturday night to clear out the moisture and another Sunday night to bring cooler air. With any luck Sunday should have only scattered showers or thunderstorms and a high in the lower 80s. Early next week is shaping up to be sunny and cool with highs only in the lower 70s.