“Well, hello, Dolly!”

Believe it or not, what’s left of Hurricane Dolly is going to affect our weather in Central Ohio on Wednesday.

When Dolly came ashore last Wednesday (July 23), she was a Category Two hurricane with sustained winds of 100 mph and higher gusts. As she moved westward and farther inland, she lost her best energy source: the warm, 85-degree waters of the Gulf of Mexico. Without a good supply of energy, she settled down into a Tropical Storm then a sub-tropical low.

Now, what’s left of her has developed a few fronts, gotten caught up in the directional forces of the jet stream and is moving eastward again. The remnants will be here on Wednesday and will interact with another low-pressure center moving in from the northwest.

FXUS61 KILN 291935
AFDILN
AREA
FORECAST DISCUSSION
NATIONAL WEATHER SERVICE WILMINGTON OH
335 PM EDT
TUE JUL 29 2008
.SYNOPSIS...
A MID-LEVEL TROUGH WILL DEEPEN AND MOVE EAST ACROSS THE GREAT LAKES THROUGH THURSDAY. THIS WILL SEND A WEAK COLD FRONT INTO THE LOWER GREAT LAKES ON WEDNESDAY...WHICH WILL INTERACT WITH TROPICAL MOISTURE FROM THE REMNANTS OF DOLLY.

The front moving into the Great Lakes region from the northwest is dragging a cold front. By the time the front gets to Ohio, it will have plenty of moisture to work with, thanks to Dolly’s leftovers. All that warm, moist air combined with some daytime heating and an efficient forcing mechanism (like the front) can produce heavy downpours and some severe thunderstorms.

That’s why the NWS’s Storm Prediction Center has put Ohio in the “slight risk” category for severe weather on Wednesday. There’s a chance that some of the thunderstorms could be strong enough to produce high winds and –maybe- some small hail.

Once the front passes by, our weather should settle down a bit... and get really warm and steamy through the weekend.