We have our second tropical storm of the 2008 Atlantic Season in the far eastern Atlantic Ocean, about 190 south-southwest of the Cape Verde Islands.   Bertha will continue a northwesterly track through the open Atlantic.   Maximum sustained winds are near 40mph and intensification is possibke to near hurricane strength in the next 72-120 hours. 

http://www.nhc.noaa.gov/text/refresh/MIATCPAT2+shtml/031454.shtml

Hi everyone

I’m a little busy today - with some graphics training to get through, but wanted to say hello.  Quick weather update:  We’ve got a cold front draped from the Northeast back into the Plains, and that  will be the focus of showers and thunderstorms as we head into the long holiday weekend.   An isolated severe thunderstorm could also pop up with the main threat being hail, damaging winds and localized flooding.  Much of the west remains dry with the exception of the pacific northwest where a disturbance is moving in and bringing with it some unsettled weather.  Meantime, somewhat cooler and more humid air will help firefighters battle wildfires in California.  The desert southwest will remain dangerously hot into the weekend.

And something very cool has developed out in the far Eastern Atlantic:  A new tropical depression just off the coast of Africa.  This is forecast to become our 2nd tropical storm of the season.  The storm is not forecast to become a hurricane and will not be a threat to land, but will be monitored over the next several days for development.    It’s very rare to see a tropical storm form this far out in the Atlantic so early in the season.   If you’d like to check it out, you can head here: http://www.nhc.noaa.gov/

Have a great day everyone - and safe travels if you are already heading out of town for the long 4th of July Holiday!

jd

I almost forgot!  Shame on me!  Incase you’d like to read up on the history of Canada Day, you can look here:

http://www.pch.gc.ca/special/canada/11/canada_e.cfm

It’s a busy Sunday afternoon here in the weather department.  The east coast is in line for some very rough weather tonight as a cold front slams into some very humid, unstable air.  I’ve already reported on a couple of tornado warnings in South Carolina and Pensylvania in the last few hours.  Here’s a peak at all of the watches and warnings…. We could see some significant rain in a short period of time for these regions as well.  1-2 inches an hour with some of these bigger thunderstorms cells.

And the wildfire situation doesn’t seem to be improving for California.  Dry, hot conditions as well as the threat for dry lightening could spark more fires.   I just don’t know how firefighters are going to be able to get the upper hand on the 1,000 fires that are burning right now.  It seems like such an impossible task.  Here’s a peak at all of the large fires across the region. 

I do hope everyone is having a safe weekend.  I’m back tomorrow as we head into the 4th of July week…hard to believe it’s almost July isn’t it?

See you later!

jd

Hey guys

A couple of you have made mention that some of the U-Report photos are false, or mis-credited.   It’s going to be tough in some cases to track what photos are not “real” or lifted from other websites.

Please, if you have ANY concerns with any of the photos you can send your comments here:

foxfanphotos@foxnews.com

If I see anything that is suspicious, I will definitely delete them right away.

Thanks for your help with this.

jd

Clipart

Hi guys.

Hope you had a wonderful weekend! We stayed close to home - went out to dinner last night and watched one of the best movies I’ve seen in YEARS.

It’s called In the Shadow of the Moon and documents the amazing astronauts that were part of the Apollo Missions to the Moon. I recommend everyone see it, because at the end of the movie you will be wiping away tears, and realizing we need to stop complaining about the small stuff, and appreciate this amazing earth we live on. It will make you stop and think about what is important, and what we spend too much time worrying about.

You will have a renewed appreciation for your life and human-kind. The one thing I wish we had right now as a Nation is something to bring us altogether like the event we had on July 21, 1969 when Neil Armstrong took his first steps on the moon. The whole world watched that moment unfold on television, and were so happy, so proud and mystified as to how on earth this was achieved! I am still in awe of our Space Program, but I think the Shuttle Launches have become so routine now, that I don’t give it the proper attention it deserves each and every time it happens.

This film will make you believe in Miracles you can witness with your own eyes, and the footage is just incredible. A lot of it I have never seen before, and am so Thankful it is now put together so beautifully in an amazing documentary we can show our kids and grand-kids. You will not be sorry.

Keep Reading …

I for one am Thankful it is Friday!  I need a weekend pronto!

Of course we are still very concerned about flooding over the Midwest.  it seems every day a new levee fails or gets over-topped by water.  I was reading one of my favorite Weather Bloggers Dr. Jeff Masters over at www.wunderground.com, and he brought up some interesting points about why we are seeing such massive and historic floods this year.  Here’s part of what he writes (and you can check out the full article here:

“The U.S. Geological Survey has preliminary data showing that this month’s floods on four of Iowa’s rivers–the Cedar, Iowa, Shell Rock, and Wapsipinicon–were 500-year floods. Back in 1993, many rivers in the Midwest also experienced 500-year floods, so the region has endured two 500-year floods in the past 15 years. How can this be? First of all a definition–a 500-year flood is an event that has only a 0.2% chance of occurring in a given year, based on available river flow data. Of course, reliable data only goes back a century at most, so designation of a 500-year flood event is somewhat subjective. Still, it seems rather improbable that two such huge floods should occur within such a short time span, raising the question of whether the floods were, in part, human-caused.

In a provocative story in the Washington Post today, it was pointed out that part of the flooding is due to the draining of wetlands for farming purposes. As nature’s natural buffers against flooding are drained and filled to provide room for more farmland, run-off and flooding are bound to increase. Furthermore, as more levees are built to protect more valuable farmland and new developments, flood waters are pushed out of the former areas they were allowed to spread out in and forced into river channels behind the new levees. Even higher levees must then be constructed to hold back the increased volume of water they are asked to contain. “

This is a story that is going to be with us for sometime to come.  As for rain in the forecast, there’s a risk for thunderstorm across parts of the Midwest today and tomorrow, but certainly nothing that will bring the kind of floods we’ve seen over the last week.

Our other big story is the heat across the West.   As a ridge of High Pressure continues to dominate the area, we have excessive heat warnings for much of southern California into Southwest Arizona where temperatures will top the century mark and shatter records this weekend.

Thank you for your responses to what I wrote last night with regards to changes on the blog, and more specifically to the U-Report features.    I do want to give a shout out to our intern Krista who is helping upload the weather photos on a daily basis.  I am Thankful to her for taking some of the workload off my plate for the next little while.

Have a great Friday!!

jd

There is a fabulous link that you guys can go if you have any concerns, comments, suggestions etc about some of the programming at FOX.  They love to hear your input, so by all means - let them know!

http://www.foxnews.com/story/0,2933,77538,00.html

Read here!

Check out the wonderful blog from my good friend Jeff Goldblatt reporting on the scene from Iowa:

http://onthescene.blogs.foxnews.com/author/jeffgoldblatt/