Cool, dry weekend expected; troubles brewing in the tropics

• Chilly start to Saturday (40s)
• Sunny, comfortable weekend
• Watching for any tropical impacts next week

NEW IN THE TROPICS

Tropical Storm Ian has formed in the Caribbean with the National Hurricane Center forecasting a possible landfall along the southern U.S. sometime early next week.

The model trends have been to quickly strengthen this system into a hurricane south of Cuba before taking a right hook toward the Gulf and South Florida early next week as a major hurricane.

There’s still quite a bit of uncertainty when it comes to any landfall locations and strength at this point. At this point, the best thing to do is to monitor the forecasts closely if you have travel plans to the western Caribbean this weekend, and Florida and the Mid-Atlantic next week.

THIS WEEKEND

We’ll start out with lows in the 40s Saturday morning. High temperatures Saturday afternoon will read in the low to mid 70s for most hometowns. Meanwhile, Sunday offers a gradual warm up into the 70s and low 80s (near normal). It will definitely feel like fall to close out the week and for our first full weekend of fall!

Mostly dry conditions are expected for Saturday, but another front heads our way later Sunday. Right now looks like we stay mostly dry throughout the day Sunday with only a few stray showers with an approaching cold front.

NIGHT SKY HAPPENINGS

• SATURDAY: At dawn, you can spot the waning crescent Moon low in the eastern sky.
• SUNDAY: New Moon (5:55 p.m. EDT).
• SPACE STATION FLYOVERS: SATURDAY: 8:45 PM, Visible 2 min, Approaching NW | SUNDAY: 7:57 PM, Visible 5 min, Approaching NNW. [View More Times]

NEXT WEEK

A majority of the week remains mostly dry and cooler than average. Afternoon highs reach the low 70s in most spots. The wildcard is what happens with the likely tropical system entering the Gulf and perhaps Florida during the first part of the week.

Any northerly push could bring tropical rain to our area late in the week, or next weekend. We’ll know more as the week goes on.

Track the latest in our Hurricane Center or on our new WDBJ7 Weather Stream.

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