Results tagged “wind”

Hurricane Bill may have kicked off the 2009 storm season down south, but it looks like Tropical Storm Danny will be the first storm to pay us a little visit this year. The graphic above from the National Weather Service shows Danny making its way up the Atlantic coastline, bringing some wet weather to D.C. in just about two to three short days. If we're reading this correctly, there's only a 10-20% chance of Danny picking up enough speed to turn into a hurricane, according to this map, and D.C. will most likely feel only the outer edges of the storm, so we're not exactly looking at another Isabel. The Capital Weather Gang describes the storm predictions as pretty uncertain at this point, but notes that however strong it gets, the worst of it will likely stay offshore.

The National Weather Service has issued a Severe Thunderstorm Watch until 5 p.m. this evening. Some of the intense storm activity that could pop up midday today includes hail up to 1.5 inches in diameter, wind gusts up to 70 mph, and lightning. Capital Weather Gang finds the silver lining: "... the cold front causing the storm threat should clear out all this muggy air. We'll feel much more comfortable for the weekend, before shower chances return early next week." Works for us.

We don't want to minimize the seriousness of the threat Tropical Storm/Maybe Category 1 Hurricane Hanna potentially poses to the D.C. Metro area. As of mid-day on Friday, our favorite weather guys are saying 2-4 inches of rain and winds that could reach sustained speeds of 30 mph and occasional gusts to 50 mph. Should the storm intensify, we could easily see 3-7 inches of rain. That's a real storm, folks. It could even be a little freaky: minor flooding, power outages, frogs, etc. But it's also only going to last for about one day, it's not going to be as bad as Isabel, and there's really no need to stockpile supplies more than what you probably normally keep on hand: a flashlight and enough food and toilet paper to last a day or two, in the event Pepco isn't able to get the power back on right away (and that's assuming your power even goes out at all).