What’s Left Of Post-Tropical Cyclone Exits United States

The first tropical storm of the 2013 Atlantic Hurricane Season is in the books as post-tropical cyclone, Andrea departed from the United States this morning.  There has been some instability around the Central Jersey area.  The various forecasts including one from the local National Weather Service office in Mount Holly indicated a possible stray thunderstorm developing during the course of the day.  However, despite the development of some cumulus clouds, there has not been any shower or thunderstorm activity.

Looking back on Andrea, the storm did bring some gusty winds before coming through the Central Jersey area very early Saturday morning.  Winds increased to between 20 and 30 miles per hour while the barometric pressure fell to 29.55 inches of Hg, or 1001 millibars here at GWC.  There was a bit of rain during the early morning hours to round out the storm total of 2.73 inches.  Thankfully, dry air had been getting entrenched near the center of circulation, where the last batch of rain was located.  The batch came in early this morning, but only brought about another tenth of an inch.

With the storm moving very rapidly in upwards of 35 miles per hour as of Friday night, rainfall totals in Northwestern Middlesex County were not as bad as in West Jersey.  Portions of Hunterdon County received about 5 inches of rain.  Other locales around South Plainfield and Middlesex County received between 2 to 3 inches.  The storm did take down a tree in Manhattan while causing a great deal of flooding around not only the New York area, but also in Massachusetts.  Even Miami was still suffering from the rainfall it had gotten from Andrea earlier in the week.

Andrea, which fell shy of becoming a hurricane with peak winds at 65 miles per hour prior to landfall north of Cedar Key in the Big Bend area of Florida, brought a variety of severe weather including heavy rain, strong winds, and even some tornadoes.   At least 10 were spawned by the storm in Florida while a few more were unleashed in the Carolinas.  A Tornado Watch was still in effect for a good portion of the Mid-Atlantic from the Carolinas to Virginia as of Friday night.  While the storm wasn’t the classic Cape Verde storm that we are accostumed to dealing with a peak season in September, it was an important reminder that hurricane season is upon us, and it is time to get prepared if we haven’t done so already.