BLOG: We Survived Irene

With "post-tropical storm" Irene now racing through the St. Lawrence River Valley of Quebec today, there's still some serious river and stream flooding going on, especially in New Jersey. This will continue for the next few days before all of the rivers can drop below their flood stages. There'll be a lot of cleaning up to do after this huge storm, including power restoration, over the next few days.

The weather will be drier and much more pleasant during the next few days. High pressure building across the Midwest and should reach the Northeast tonight and tomorrow. Well to the south of the Mason-Dixon Line, there may be a shower and a thunderstorm this afternoon. An impulse of upper-level energy will probably cause some of that activity this  afternoon and this evening -- which should be confined to central/southern Virginia, as well as across the Carolinas. Most temperatures this afternoon will be in the lower-80s. Tonight will turn out mostly clear, with temperatures in those typically cooler places well inland dropping into the lower-50s. Many of the larger cities will be in the lower or middle-60s early tomorrow morning. With the sun out most of the time tomorrow, high temperatures will be in the middle-80s. Wednesday won't be much different than tomorrow, because the fairly large ridge of high pressure will continue to sit over eastern Canada and northern New England. Later this week, as the core of high pressure drifts to the east, it should be located off of the New England Coast and in the Canadian Maritimes by early Friday morning. And, we must anticipate that some moisture originating from the Atlantic Ocean will start creeping into the eastern third of the country by the end of the workweek. Actually, as a weak disturbance and other moisture slides across the Tennessee and Ohio valleys, a few widely-separated showers and thunderstorms may occur in western Pennsylvania as early as Thursday. The influx of Atlantic moisture will probably push up the spine of the Appalachians at first. This may result in some clouds for the I-95 corridor on Thursday, but most of those showers would (in theory) stay west of the coastal plain. Howver, by later on Thursday or Thursday night, the chances for seeing a couple of showers in central and eastern Maryland will a little higher > about 20 or 30 percent.