A rainy Commencement?
A rather complicated forecast situation has set up for Friday. While we all had hoped that the high pressure (which brought us gorgeous weather on Tuesday and Wednesday) would stick around for Commencement, Mother Nature has other plans in mind. A low pressure system moving from the Ohio River Valley into our regions brings the first threat of rain today. Complicating this though, is a tropical system, which as of 6 p.m. Wednesday was classified as the first tropical storm of the 2013 Atlantic hurricane season; Tropical Storm Andrea. This system will interact with the low pressure from the Ohio River Valley as well as with an upper level trough to bring heavy rain today and tomorrow. With abundant tropical moisture, we could receive several inches of rain. As of this writing, there is still significant forecast uncertainty regarding the track of this system, the timing of its arrival in the Northeast, and the location of the heaviest precipitation. It seems that the heaviest precipitation will not be until tonight, but there is, unfortunately, a chance of rain during this mornings Commencement ceremony. As the system heads out to sea tomorrow, the rain should taper, with dry weather expected on Sunday.