Parched but chance for tropical storm...

Paddled the Delaware River in a tandem canoe with Sharon last Sunday with 20+ other paddlers as a Delaware Valley Division -American Canoe Association outing at Tinicum Park. Tinicum to Point Pleasant is a really pretty stretch of the river. There were plenty of other people out there including a group from Mohawk Canoe Club, and lots of livery boats and tubers.

The gage at Rieglesville read about 2.68' and that might be the lowest level that I've ever paddled the Delaware River, but even then we only scraped a few gravel bars, at least one of those occasions only because I chose the boniest course, much to the chagrin of the unfortunates following me.

The Musconetcong is stuck at 1.68' Bloomsbury and it will stay there as long as the release from Lake Hopatcong remains at a paltry 68 CFS. They should be cranking about 200 CFS.

We do stand a chance of getting some rain with a little flow off the Atlantic. We might even have Tropical Storm Kyle visit somewhere between Thursday through Saturday morning. We need it badly.

The National Weather Service says:

"UNFORTUNATELY MOST IF NOT ALL OF THE MODEL GUIDANCE IS NOT SURE ON
WHAT TO MAKE OF THE POSSIBILITY OF A TROPICAL SYSTEM SLIDING INTO
THE REGION ON THURSDAY NIGHT."

A less circumspect call comes from AccuWeather.com Hurricane Center "the system over the next couple of days will move through an area that will allow it to become better organized and take on tropical characteristics, possibly become a tropical depression.

All interests along the East Coast should closely monitor the progress and development of the disturbance.

Expert Senior Meteorologist Alex Sosnowski says it is too early to determine if the disturbance will make landfall on the Eastern Seaboard, or if it will skirt up the coast while remaining over the open water of the Atlantic.

"The steering currents at this time of year usually direct a system in this position in the Atlantic to the north and northeast, along the East Coast," says Sosnowski.

"The danger here is the system develops rapidly into a hurricane and is then forced to the northwest at increasing speed toward the New England or mid-Atlantic coast Friday into Saturday."

To paraphrase the great War President: "Bring it on!"

And we could get the same results that Bush did. Afterall, 105 years ago we had a similar scenario that eventually became the Pumpkin Flood of 1903.