Below average temperatures have taken a good majority of the United States by storm.
Would you believe me if I told you it’s all thanks to Hurricane Erin?
What happens in our atmosphere is all connected in one way, shape, or form. If you think about it from a fluid perspective (the way our weather behaves is very much so like water you see down here on Earth’s surface), it really begins to make sense.
Hurricane Erin was a massive system, with winds flowing around the center of the storm that extended thousands of miles away. I’m not talking tropical storm or hurricane force winds, but just the general influence Erin had on its local environment.
The turning of the wind flow around Erin, combined with reaching a high enough latitude in the north Atlantic caused a nice disruption in our polar and mid-latitude winds. The hurricane while transitioning to a more non-tropical area of low pressure helped tug down an early introduction to Fall.
We’ve seen temperatures drop in dramatic fashion across the east, with highs topping out in the mid to upper 70s. In comparison to what we’ve felt here in Central Florida, especially more recently, this is HUGE.
A small sliver of that will try to extend its reach into our neighborhood, but primarily if you reside in north Central Florida.
Some of our overnight lows tonight actually have Ocala and Gainesville dipping BELOW 70 degrees. This hasn’t happened since the end of May earlier this year, so talk about a breath of fresh air - LITERALLY.
I wish I had the good news to spread down here to the rest of us in Florida, but we’re actually right on the periphery of that plunge of cooler and drier air.
As a result, we’re looking at rain chances going up for all of us as the front responsible for draping the lower temps across the east hangs out directly over us. This will help induce a strand of extra moisture flowing west to east over the peninsula.
There are even subtle hints that we could see tropical development along this leftover boundary before it finally lifts north out of here.
So while it does seem Fall has arrived early, I don’t want us to get too hasty. It’s more of the role Erin played on ripping apart our summertime pattern during its long time spent in the western Atlantic. Hurricanes can behave in similar ways to the snowstorms and winter systems we observe at the tail end or beginning of the calendar years.
We can talk more about the differences at a later time. For now, temps will drop for us! Looks like it’ll more so be a response to rainfall than it will be Pumpkin Spice season sliding on down here.