Erin making closest U.S. pass as heat alerts blanket the West

Our two weeks of tracking Erin is reaching its crescendo. The storm was about 210 miles east of Cape Hatteras at 8 a.m. this morning, roughly as close as it will come to U.S. landmass.

Weather watch

Erin passing U.S. coast. Tropical storm warnings are up for coastal waters from eastern North Carolina to central New Jersey as 105 mph Hurricane Erin passes offshore. Huge waves, dangerous rip currents and storm surge flooding are impacting many locations, including Long Island well away from the storm center. Multiple other areas of disturbed weather are also being monitored across the Atlantic.

Western U.S. heat. Heat alerts run from the border of Mexico to Canada across the western U.S. as a multi-day stretch of record and near-record temperatures sets up. Portland and downtown Los Angeles are under extreme heat warning, for temperatures around 100 in the former and mid- to upper 90s in the latter.

Lightning links

Air quality alert in effect for Broward as wildfire burns in the Everglades. (Briana Trujillo, NBC Miami)

Here comes the blue

The best thing about fall might be the nice weather. We’re on the verge of a big preview of things to come starting next week.

The National Weather Service is all in on a lengthy cool down for much of the eastern half of the country. The blues are plentiful in the week 1 outlook.

And it’s the same general story for week 2.

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Weekday morning newsletter by a journalist/forecaster. Connecting weather and climate change dots while occasionally stirring the pot.

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