Outlook:
Not much to talk about in the weather department over the next 5 days for the entire Mid Atlantic region as a cool Canadian high pressure center drifts eastward across the northern United States. Expect high temperature through the week to range from the upper 70s to low 80s pretty much across the board with full sunshine and light winds.


Temperatures during the evening may even dip into the upper 50s to near 60 on Tuesday/Wednesday morning as high pressure slides right over the DC metro area.

New Orleans Editorial rips FEMA a good one--the The Times-Picayune of New Orleans printed an editorial and open letter to the President criticizing (and that may be an understatement) the government's response to a disaster everyone knew was coming. The letter, printed in full (from CNN):

Dear Mr. President:

We heard you loud and clear Friday when you visited our devastated city and the Gulf Coast and said, "What is not working, we're going to make it right."

Please forgive us if we wait to see proof of your promise before believing you. But we have good reason for our skepticism.

Bienville built New Orleans where he built it for one main reason: It's accessible. The city between the Mississippi River and Lake Pontchartrain was easy to reach in 1718.

How much easier it is to access in 2005 now that there are interstates and bridges, airports and helipads, cruise ships, barges, buses and diesel-powered trucks.

Despite the city's multiple points of entry, our nation's bureaucrats spent days after last week's hurricane wringing their hands, lamenting the fact that they could neither rescue the city's stranded victims nor bring them food, water and medical supplies.

Meanwhile there were journalists, including some who work for The Times-Picayune, going in and out of the city via the Crescent City Connection. On Thursday morning, that crew saw a caravan of 13 Wal-Mart tractor trailers headed into town to bring food, water and supplies to a dying city.

Television reporters were doing live reports from downtown New Orleans streets. Harry Connick Jr. brought in some aid Thursday, and his efforts were the focus of a "Today" show story Friday morning.

Yet, the people trained to protect our nation, the people whose job it is to quickly bring in aid were absent. Those who should have been deploying troops were singing a sad song about how our city was impossible to reach.

We're angry, Mr. President, and we'll be angry long after our beloved city and surrounding parishes have been pumped dry. Our people deserved rescuing. Many who could have been were not. That's to the government's shame.

Mayor Ray Nagin did the right thing Sunday when he allowed those with no other alternative to seek shelter from the storm inside the Louisiana Superdome. We still don't know what the death toll is, but one thing is certain: Had the Superdome not been opened, the city's death toll would have been higher. The toll may even have been exponentially higher.

It was clear to us by late morning Monday that many people inside the Superdome would not be returning home. It should have been clear to our government, Mr. President. So why weren't they evacuated out of the city immediately? We learned seven years ago, when Hurricane Georges threatened, that the Dome isn't suitable as a long-term shelter. So what did state and national officials think would happen to tens of thousands of people trapped inside with no air conditioning, overflowing toilets and dwindling amounts of food, water and other essentials?

State Rep. Karen Carter was right Friday when she said the city didn't have but two urgent needs: "Buses! And gas!" Every official at the Federal Emergency Management Agency should be fired, Director Michael Brown especially.

In a nationally televised interview Thursday night, he said his agency hadn't known until that day that thousands of storm victims were stranded at the Ernest N. Morial Convention Center. He gave another nationally televised interview the next morning and said, "We've provided food to the people at the Convention Center so that they've gotten at least one, if not two meals, every single day."

Lies don't get more bald-faced than that, Mr. President.

Yet, when you met with Mr. Brown Friday morning, you told him, "You're doing a heck of a job."

That's unbelievable.

There were thousands of people at the Convention Center because the riverfront is high ground. The fact that so many people had reached there on foot is proof that rescue vehicles could have gotten there, too.

We, who are from New Orleans, are no less American than those who live on the Great Plains or along the Atlantic Seaboard. We're no less important than those from the Pacific Northwest or Appalachia. Our people deserved to be rescued.

No expense should have been spared. No excuses should have been voiced. Especially not one as preposterous as the claim that New Orleans couldn't be reached.

Mr. President, we sincerely hope you fulfill your promise to make our beloved communities work right once again.

When you do, we will be the first to applaud.

And even I can say, the way the government handled this disaster was completely unacceptable. Scientists and researchers had outlined the potential for complete destruction of New Orleans years in advance, and procedures were developed on how to evacuate the people from the city, get food and water to the needy, etc, and yet, the whole process was fumbled into an absolute mess.

There is concern another tropical disturbance could affect the Florida panhandle later in the week as outlined in the National Hurricane Center's Tropical weather Outlook:

FOR THE NORTH ATLANTIC...CARIBBEAN SEA AND THE GULF OF MEXICO...

THE NATIONAL HURRICANE CENTER IS ISSUING ADVISORIES ON HURRICANE
MARIA... LOCATED ABOUT 530 MILES EAST-SOUTHEAST OF BERMUDA.

AN AREA OF LOW PRESSURE CENTERED ABOUT 330 MILES SOUTH OF BERMUDA IS
DRIFTING NORTHWARD.  ALTHOUGH THE ASSOCIATED SHOWER ACTIVITY IS
STILL NOT WELL ORGANIZED AROUND THE CENTER... CONDITIONS APPEAR
FAVORABLE FOR THIS SYSTEM TO DEVELOP INTO A TROPICAL DEPRESSION
DURING THE NEXT DAY OR SO.

SURFACE OBSERVATIONS AND SATELLITE IMAGERY SUGGEST THAT A BROAD
SURFACE LOW PRESSURE SYSTEM COULD BE DEVELOPING JUST OFF THE
SOUTHEASTERN COAST OF FLORIDA AND OVER THE NORTHWESTERN BAHAMAS. 
THE ASSOCIATED SHOWER ACTIVITY HAS BECOME A LITTLE MORE
CONCENTRATED TODAY... AND UPPER-LEVEL WINDS ARE SOMEWHAT FAVORABLE
FOR ADDITIONAL AND GRADUAL DEVELOPMENT.  IT IS POSSIBLE THAT THIS
NEARLY STATIONARY SYSTEM COULD DEVELOP INTO A TROPICAL DEPRESSION
DURING THE NEXT DAY OR SO.

SHOWER ACTIVITY REMAINS LIMITED IN ASSOCIATION WITH THE
WESTWARD-MOVING TROPICAL WAVE LOCATED ABOUT 550 MILES EAST OF THE
LESSER ANTILLES.  SIGNIFICANT DEVELOPMENT OF THIS SYSTEM IS NOT
EXPECTED OVER THE NEXT COUPLE OF DAYS.

THE REMNANT CIRCULATION OF TROPICAL DEPRESSION LEE IS MERGING WITH A
FRONTAL ZONE ABOUT 475 MILES SOUTH-SOUTHEAST OF CAPE RACE
NEWFOUNDLAND.

ELSEWHERE...TROPICAL STORM FORMATION IS NOT EXPECTED THROUGH
MONDAY.

All of the Beta and Advection Models (BAM) bring this area of disturbed weather into east central Florida within the next 24-36 hours and eventually into the northern Gulf of Mexico. The below graphic displays Hurricane Maria in the central Atlantic (no threat to land) and the area of disturbed weather about 100-200 miles off the eastern Florida panhandle. While this system is not expected to bring high winds to Florida, special attention must be paid to this tropical system over the next few days as it works across Florida and into the Gulf. Another hit from any hurricane (be it a category 1 or a category 5) along the Gulf Coast would bring catastrophic problems to our economy.

It is far too early to speculate about this tropical low's eventual path once it enters the Gulf of Mexico in 3 days or so, but residents along the northern Gulf coast and southern Florida are urged to watch the development of this system very closely.