Henri dumped record rainfall on New York City and surrounding areas in the hours before landfall Saturday night. An outer band related to then-Hurricane Henri was enhanced by a strong upper-level low-pressure system to the west to produce the torrent that fell in some areas.
That same secondary low is also responsible for pulling the remnants of Henri west into southern New York state and stalling it there. The system is forecast to sit around today, bringing more rounds of rain, though not at the incredible intensity that it started.
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By tomorrow, an upper-level disturbance moving across southern Canada is forecast to kick Henri’s leftovers into the Atlantic where it will be absorbed into the jet stream.
In the western Caribbean, the long-range models forecast a system to begin to form late this week – Disturbance #1. Significant development appears to be more likely over the weekend, however, when it emerges in the southwestern Gulf.
People along the Texas and Mexican coast will have to keep an eye on it, but it’s too early to know more.
Well out in the Atlantic, Disturbance #2 is forecast to move to the north. It has a fair chance of briefly developing into an organized system. The only land it might affect is Bermuda before it is swept away. There are no signs at the current time of it becoming very strong.
A large plume of Saharan dust is covering much of the Atlantic. It’s responsible for the milky, murky skies over South Florida and to some degree for the excessive humidity. It also makes life harder on any tropical systems to try to form over the tropical Atlantic.
This date in 1992 was a Sunday, and we were in full hurricane-preparation mode. It was a beautiful sunny August day, but a monster storm was just over the horizon.
It had been 13 years since a significant hurricane had threatened the area – Hurricane David in 1979. David had hit the Dominican Republic as a Category 5 and was disheveled as it emerged from its trek over the mountains. It was forecast to reorganize as it headed toward South Florida but never got super strong, and the bad weather stayed on the Bahamas side of the storm.
So no big hurricane had directly impact the southern peninsula since Hurricane Betsy in 1965. And that was a different era. Miami/Fort Lauderdale was a different city in the 60s. And as disruptive as Betsy was, it was an entirely different kind of storm than the tornado-like wrecking ball that was coming that night.
When Sunday evening came, a jittery calm settled over the city. People were in place, their preparations finished. Waiting and anticipating, but having no idea what was to come that night.
The first gusts arrived at midnight. When the calendar flipped to August 24, 1992, Hurricane Andrew was on our doorstep.