Hey Folks,

I hope you've been enjoying the nice weather. I had a great few days off... however I was keeping a close eye on the Tropics over the past few days. I'll get to that in a minute... first I'll touch on the next few days.

SYSTEM MOVES IN

-A system moving in from the West is bringing some clouds, showers and warmer air with it.

-Showers have already spread into Western Labrador today with around 15 mm by tomorrow afternoon.

-Showers will push into Western Newfoundland overnight and then Eastern Lab and Central and Eastern Newfoundland by tomorrow afternoon. 5-10 mm for most... perhaps as much as 15 mm.

-Tuesday will be cooler ahead of this system... however after the warm front crosses... Wednesday and Thursday will be quite warm in Newfoundland with temps back into the mid-20's.

-Things will try to clear out a bit on Thursday... but overall things are looking fairly unsettled over the next 5 to 7 days across most of the Province. In fact a week from now we could be dealing with Bill.

THE TROPICS

Since we last talked... 3 storms have been named in the South. Tropical Depression Claudette is down in the Gulf of Mexico and dropped a lot of rain on the Florida Panhandle last night and today. However that will be about it for her as she loses strength over the next 24 hours.

It's back into the Tropical Atlantic where things have really heated up with Tropical Depression Ana and Bill, which was upgraded to a Category One Hurricane at 5 am this morning.

It appears as though Ana is destined for Florida or the Gulf of Mexico. Most of the forecast models are keeping her a Tropical Storm or a Tropical Depression, however the water in the Gulf is extremely warm and so she could quickly strengthen as she nears the Coast.

Big Bill is of the greatest concern to us here in Eastern Canada and in Newfoundland and Labrador. You can see based on the computer forecast model below, Bill is forecast to track further Northeast then Ana and there's very good agreement that he will strengthen to a Category 3 or 4 as he heads towards the Eastern seaboard and Eastern Canada by this weekend. Beyond that it's still too early to tell whether he will clip New England, or the Maritimes, or us here in NL, or just stay far enough East and miss everyone entirely and head out to sea.

Either way, I'll keep you posted.

Ryan