Suncoast Stormwatch

Between  the fires in California and the flooding in Georgia this month, we've seen both sides of the spectrum.
 
Locally, in the Tampa Bay Area, tempertures will be in the low to mid 90s, with a slight cool down at the end of the week. Rain chances should leave the area for Monday, return to give a small chance on Tuesday, and then dry out again for the remainder of the week.

Here is a climatology report from NWS Ruskin regarding Autumn temperatures.


Major flooding occured in Georgia this past week.  The torrential rainfall started last Saturday and ended Monday. In Atlanta, you saw 6.46 inches from the 19th to the 21st.
People are calling ths flood event a 100-year storm, which, contrary to widespread belief, is not a storm that happens every 100 years, it just means that there is a 1 in 100 chance that a storm of that magnitude will occur.

Here are accumalated rainfall totals from the event:

Preliminary 3-DAY RAINFALL TOTALS
September 19-21, 2009   

  Atlanta (ATL) 6.46 inches
 Athens (AHN) 6.16 inches
 Columbus (CSG) 1.46 inches
 Macon (MCN) 5.58 inches
 Peachtree City (FFC) 2.78 inches
 Gainesville (GVL) 6.26 inches
West Fulton County (FTY) 8.22 inches
 Chamblee (PDK) 8.96 inches
 Cartersville (VPC) 5.28 inches
Rome (RMG) 4.22 inches


Preliminary 3-DAY RAINFALL TOTALS
from Cooperative Observers
September 19-21, 2009 (through 5:30 pm Monday)    

Dallas 7NE 15.44 inches (through 5:30 pm)
Canton 10.32 inches Mableton 7.96 inches
Carrollton 10.27inches Doraville 10.90 inches
 Alpharetta 4SSW 7.51 inches

Other Notable 24 hour rainfall totals ending Monday morning include:

Douglasville 3.7 S - 11.80 inches
Lilburn 0.8 SSE - 9.60 inches
Douglasville 0.2 N - 8.58 inches
Lawrenceville 3.0 NW - 8.21 inches
Lawrenceville 4.0 NW - 8.18 inches
Douglasville 2.8 NE 8.13 inches

Additional Daily Rainfall totals can be viewed on the Georgia CoCoRAHS page.

More info can be found here


Last week's weather trivia question was: In meteorology, what is CAPE, and would 3000 CAPE be considered high or low?  The answer is below...........


CAPE stands for Convective Available Potential Energy. If you looked at a Skew-T Diagram, a rating of 3000 would be considered high. A really good guide to understanding CAPE can be found here, along with a guide to understanding the rest of the Skew-T parameters

This week's question is: In the National Weather Service, what do the terms MIC, WCM, and SOO stand for?