The main station (KFMY) is down now after
recording 4.18” of rain since 06z, so I suppose we’ll switch to KRSW unless
KFMY comes back online soon. KRSW has recorded 3.25” of rain since 06z as of
17:45 UTC. Hurricane Ian has strengthened to a high-end category 4 hurricane just
west of Cape Coral and is crawling northeastward and will be making landfall in
the next few hours. Heavy rain fell last night with the outer bands, with somewhat
of a break this morning. Despite the heavy rain, the low was 77F, and
indication of the pure tropical airmass in a hurricane. Now the winds are
really increasing with the approach of the hurricane’s core, now gusting to hurricane force. It remains to be
seen if KRSW also gets knocked out. KRSW will be a few miles farther from the
eye than KFMY which will make a noticeable difference in winds. The late-day
warming this afternoon with breaks of sun that were expected will likely not
happen with the hurricane being this far south. In any case, the hurricane will
weaken and move northeastward tonight, with winds gradually weakening and
shifting to westerly and then northwesterly but still strong at the beginning
of day 3. These winds off the warm ocean water will prevent much, though there will be weak cool air advection.
A few scattered showers are possible but with much, much less rain than the past couple
of days. Some breaks of sun will cause temperatures tomorrow to be slightly warmer than
today, though the air mass behind the storm will be slightly cooler with the northwesterly flow. The thick uniform canopy of high-level clouds will be gone, with scattered to broken fields of low clouds as well that will cause brief temperature spikes when the sun shines. Clearing skies will lead to more cooling tomorrow night with the low occurring at the very end (Friday 06z), though a lingering northwesterly breeze will prevent ideal radiational cooling.
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| Source: RadarScope and NWS |
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