These are the final, sweet, sunny moments of the Summer of '08. At 11:44 a.m. EDT today we welcome the Fall Equinox and the official start of Autumn in the Northern Hemisphere as the sun appears to cross the equator into the southern sky in its inexorable slide toward the next Solstice on Dec. 21.

The long-term forecast for the Fall season calls for temperatures and precipitation in our section of the country for the next three months to be near the 30-year averages. The Winter forecast, from December through February, anticipates near-normal precipitation in Maryland, with some chance for milder-than-normal temperatures. A big snowstorm is always a possibility, of course, but the averages would appear to be working against it. I suspect this winter will look more like last winter - very little snow and mild temperatures.

More immediately, we're looking at more delightful late-summer/early-fall weather as we head into the new work week. That's us in the sunshine in the satellite photo above, with clouds from the low off to our south and east. Here's how it looks in the satellite loop.

Forecasters at Sterling are expecting mostly sunny skies through Thursday, with highs in the 70s and lows in the sleep-friendly 50s as yet another cold front sweeps through today with more cool, dry air and high pressure.

Low pressure circulating off the Carolina coast later in the week will likely bring northeast winds and wet weather to the Chesapeake by Thursday or Friday. Models disagree over exactly how the event will play out. Confusing the issue is the tropical weather developing over the northern Leeward Islands, and how it will impact weather over the Southeastern U.S.