While the city escaped most of the rain yesterday that is not the case today! Nearly 1.5 inches fell in less than an hour this morning, wreaking havoc for commuters. The rain should end by early afternoon as this tropical/non-tropical mutt of a storm moves northward. Gusty east winds will keep today's high under 70 degrees.

A couple of days of cool, dry air, perfect for outdoor trapeze enthusiasts, will follow behind the storm. Lots of radiational cooling, where the ground gives up energy directly to space, means Saturday and Sunday mornings will chill to the lower 50s in the city and lower in the suburbs. Tomorrow's high will be in the upper 60s. The timing of the next weather change is uncertain but Sunday should at least start out sunny. Clouds and a chance of rain return by Sunday night as a low pressure system begins drifting eastward.

Given how acclimatized everyone got to the hot weather this summer, you might not have noticed how warm it has been the last few days. Four of the last nine days were at least ten degrees warmer than normal. That was enough to push last month into one of the ten warmest September's on record. Six of the last seven months have been in their respective top ten warmest, and the first nine months of 2010 have been the warmest January-September period ever measured in Central Park. Will this year be the warmest ever recorded here?