After a chilly start this morning we are looking at a fantastic forecast today.  Highs will be in the mid 60s.  Sunshine the whole way through.  Then tomorrow highs will be in the upper 60s to low 70s.  A great weekend for a change. 

 Ida has strengthened a little more. 

The latest winds were at 60mph.  The pressure is at 997mb.  More strengthening is forecast in the next 2 days.  Eventually Ida will become extratropical.  It will become broader and will interact with some cooler air.  The upper level winds will increase.  While this will increase the wind shear, that actually may not weaken the storm in this case.  As it becomes extratropical it may actually use these upper level winds to maintain its intensity.  Mid-latitude storms (non-tropical storms) do use the upper level winds as part of their energy source.  Plus, the pressure gradient between Ida and the high to the north could create a broad area of strong surface winds along the Gulf coast.  It will be interesting to watch.

Meteorologist: Jeremy Wheeler

Frost advisories have been issued for Virginia Beach, Currituck county, N.C., and Northampton County, VA.  (update: Portsmouth and Norfolk are included in the advisory). Freeze warnings are up everywhere else.  Bring in the sensitive pets and plants.  I used to have a dog in Illinois when I was young.  It was a beagle that lived outside in a dog house.  Even for most of the Winter.  That was pretty common where I lived.  That dog used to be fine in weather that we call cold here, but there were of course times that we had to bring him inside.  You probably won’t need to drip the faucets unless you have pipes that are exposed to the elements or near some thin walls.  Temperatures should only drop below the freezing mark for a couple of hours.  Plants, however, will be in trouble as the freeze will kill even the mightiest of pansies. 

  I won’t talk too much about Ida, but for now it is a strong tropical depression.  It will probably become a tropical storm in the next 24 hours as it has moved back over water.  It still has the potential to move towards Florida.  We’ll update more on that tomorrow.

Meteorologist: Jeremy Wheeler

This week I unfortunately had to report on the death of a young woman in Chesapeake from the flu.  Angela Mefford was just 27 years old and the mother of two children.  Mikayla is 8 years old Hank Jr. just 7 months.    It happened so quickly.  She got sick on a Sunday, went to the doctor on Wednesday and by Saturday she was gone.     The shocking details you can watch in my stories on wavy.com , what I did not have time to report is the true tragedy this family now faces.

Hank Mefford lost his job last December.  He  recently gained employment in Virginia Beach but was still a couple weeks from being eligible for health insurance.  They had none.  The couple had just emptied their bank account to move into a place of their own.  Now Hanks says he can’t live there.  It’s just too hard.  He and the baby have moved in with his parents who can help him care for the infant. (Mikayla is his step-daughter and lives with her Grandparents).

The young couple had made no plans in case either of them passed.   Didn’t think they needed to make any.  They had no life insurance, no idea where they wanted to be laid to rest, let alone a burial plot.

One of our generous viewers donated a plot so Hank now has a place to bury his beloved wife.  He does not however know how he will pay for the medical bills that will soon be piling up.  Social Services say it can not help.   If you can I know this family would be forever grateful.   Altmeyer Funeral Home in Virginia Beach will accept donations for the family if you indicate it is for Angela Mefford’s  family.  Their address is  Altmeyer Funeral Home  5792 Greenwich Rd, Virginia Beach, Va  23462

Ida is over land and has been weakening.  It is a tropical storm now with maximum sustained winds of 60mph.  It was briefly a hurricane before making landfall this morning over eastern Nicaragua.  The storm is expected to keep moving on a general northward motion.  If it survives and goes back over water, then it may restrengthen.  The latest track from the National Hurricane Center www.nhc.noaa.gov shows that Ida could thread the needle and pass between the Yucatan Peninsula and Cuba.  There is plenty of warm ocean water for the storm to feed off of, but the wind shear will be moderate.  The forecast will likely undergo some changes over the next 24 hours.  As Jon Cash mentioned in the previous blog, it’s even possible that we could even get some rain from the remnants of Ida.  That’s possible, but not likely.

  Locally, we have an offshore non-tropical low that is actually far away.  However, the low is expected to strengthen and increase our winds out of the North/Northwest.  (mostly over the water).  Winds near the shore may gust to over 30mph tonight into early tomorrow.  Then, the winds will die off Friday night.  That’s when the bottom drops out and temperatures area wide will drop to the 30s.  We’ll probably see widespread frost and a possible inland freeze. 

Meteorologist: Jeremy Wheeler

After a super-quiet hurricane season, hurricane Ida formed near the Central American coast early this morning. This is not unusual. Prime locations for late season storms are in the southern Gulf of Mexico and the Carribean. Why? The jet stream drops south through the Fall season and tends to rip apart thunderstorms from centralizing around a central core or low pressure system. The Fall jet stream has not made it that far south as of yet and the water temps are still very warm…above 80 degrees…the temp your need for tropical system formation. Where is it going. It is moving inland now and whatever is left of it should eventually make it into the Gulf of Mexico later in the weekend or early next week. It’s way to early to tell if we could get some rain from that later next week…but stay tuned! Crazier things have happened…

Jon Cash

We really enjoy visiting local schools.
I had the chance to stop by Dutrow Elementary in Newport News this week as part of the school’s Reading Month activities.

I read “The Perfect Thanksgiving” and as well as the story behind “The Gingerbread Girl” to nearly 100 kindergartners.

Here’s a snippet of video from the day.
Enjoy!

Ok…you’re right… all the doomsdayers out there kept saying:  “Something could still happen this hurricane season”.  “It’s not over”…  And so Ida was born this afternoon to prove that you can never count out mother nature too early.  This image is from the National Hurricane Center www.nhc.noaa.gov .  Ida is a healthy tropical storm with maximum sustained winds of 60mph.  The storm is expected to move northwest and affect Central America with some gusty winds and heavy rain.  Flooding and mudslides are the main threat from Ida.  If it survives and goes back over water, then it could reintensify before moving towards the Yucatan Peninsula.  It may shake things up a little down that way, but it has no bearing on our forecast. 

  Our local forecast is actually chilly.  Tomorrow we’ll see mid 60s (not too bad), but on Friday winds will be NNE at 15-25mph with higher gusts.  Temperatures will be in the low-mid 50s.  Futuretrak temps are even forecasting upper 40s at Norfolk Friday afternoon.  That may be a little too cold, but it will be a chilly November day. 

Finally, (just for fun) remember last year that we had snow in November.  Here’s the blog from last November about the event: http://blogs.wavy.com/2008/11/21/snow-in-november/ 

Meteorologist: Jeremy Wheeler

Political Reporter Andy Fox here at a boisterous victory party for Virginia Beach’s Bob McDonnell.  As one speaker said, “Bob has lead the republican party out of a seven year wilderness politically.”  The last time Republicans won all three statewide offices was back in 1997.

National Republican Chair Michael Steele told WAVY.com, “Bob ran a campaign that reached out.  He won back independents…no one cared about his 1989 Thesis because they care about jobs.  They care about roads. They care about education.”

Early results show Deeds failed to generate the needed turnout in African American Communities, women and Hispanics.

Republicans are using the victories tonight in Virginia to re-energize a Republican Party that has failed to win a gubernatorial race since 1997.

Deeds has no presence in Portsmouth. No poll workers and only a handful of signs. GOP out in force in the city.

I’m out working a poll in Churchland. Lots of Mcdonnell signs and workers. There is not one sign for any Democrat running for statewide office and no poll workers.