Could the weather be any less exciting?

Probably. Our threat for storms on Friday fizzled to nothing more than a light shower that dropped nearly 0.20" of rain. The clouds were thick all day Friday and as a result, the atmosphere remained too stable for the development of any severe weather. There were some strong storms and very heavy rain in Kentucky south of Louisville, but not much north of the Ohio river. The forecast for the upcoming week sounds boring. Highs in the upper 80's to low 90's and high humidity. No chance for rain this week.

Nothing Exciting

Today has been cloudy and mild with the temperature only getting into the upper 70's. I was expecting some rain today, but that didn't happen. We did have a nice rain last night that provided 0.41" of rain in about an hours time and then another 0.06" of rain fell after midnight.

Tomorrow may be better. We are in the 15% area for a slight risk of severe weather. A front is moving in from the NW which will set off the storms. At this point, it looks like the storms will come in after 4pm and on into the evening.

Picture Perfect Summer Day

If a perfect summer's day were to be defined for the dictionary, I believe today would have provided the definition. It has been absolutely beautiful today. The skies have been crystal clear and blue, the mugginess of summer has been non-existent, the breeze has been steady out of the north, and the temperature a perfect 75 degrees. I can't remember a July day such as this in the past. Here's just how perfect it was today... I turned the a/c off and opened the windows. It's been great! Tomorrow is forecast to be nearly as nice. Let's hope so.

Here's a reason not use the computer during a thunderstorm. A 16 year old boy in Massachussetts was struck by lightning as he sat at his computer. To read more, click here.

Severe Weather Bust

We didn't get any severe weather today. At least not in this part of the county. A severe thunderstorm watch was issued around 1pm this afternoon and remaining in effect until 9pm for the area, but nothing of any significance developed. We did have a line of thundershowers move through dropping 0.15" of rain, but there was no wind. I think the clouds that hung in all day helped keep the atmosphere a bit too stable for any storm development. Farther to the south near Greensburg and Columbus there were some severe thunderstorm warnings. I haven't heard of any damage though.

Hopefully, tomorrow (Friday) will be a comfortable summer day with clear blue skies, a brisk northerly breeze, and low humidity.

Muggy, Muggy, Muggy

The humidity has really increased this week. We had 0.20" of rain this morning at 9am and then by noon, the sun was shining. That made for an extremely muggy afternoon. Showers and thunderstorms are forecast for the next two days and then a break from the humidity should occur by the weekend.

In other weather news today, strong storms just north of Tucson, Arizona created a large dust storm that moved through the Phoenix, Arizona area around 7:30 p.m. on Monday. Dust storms are common in Arizona, but this was larger than normal. I heard on the news this evening that visibilities were down to 30 ft in some parts of the area affected by the storm.

Drought Eases Temporarily

The drought seems to have eased somewhat for the area. The first two weeks of July have been good to us in rainfall. Nearly 2.5 inches of rain has fallen. However, go just a few miles down the road and conditions are as bad as ever. In Connersville, lawns are brown and dry. I imagine that we will begin to dry out in this corner of Franklin county over the next few weeks. High pressure will be building back in forcing the jet stream and the storm track to move well into Canada. I suspect the heat will be returning. If the rains continue like they have been, then temperatures will only reach 90 with high humidity. However, if the rains do not develop as they are forecast then temperatures could go into the low to mid 90's with upper 90's in some areas. It all depends on the amount of ground moisture. Higher levels of moisture in the ground translate to higher levels of humidity which prevents the temperatures from going very high. Dry air is easier to heat than moist air.

The US Drought monitor still has us in the moderate drought category, but I think abnormally dry would be a better description for Northwestern Franklin county.

Triple Digit Heat in the West

The heat is on as they say. The western states are sizzling under triple digit temperatures. Excessive heat warnings have been issued for the Mojave Desert of California, southern Nevada including Las Vegas, and extreme northwestern Arizona. When this area is placed under an excessive heat warning you know it's got to be hot! The temperature in Baker, California reached 125 Thursday, July 5 while it was 116 in Las Vegas and 115 in Phoenix. The hot weather isn't just located in the southwest though. Boise, Idaho hit 107 Thursday which was 6 degrees higher than the record. More. The high temperatures are also leading to high demands for electricity. As a restult, the demand has caused transformers to overheat and blow causing power outages.

Locally, the weather has been typical for the first week of July. The forecast calls for the heat in the west to begin moving east. Temperatures could be as high as the mid 90's on Monday before cooling off into the upper 80's with scattered storms Tuesday through Thursday.

Big Storm - Crushed Dish :-O

Around three o'clock this afternoon, a strong storm rolled through the area producing torrential rain and strong wind. I first noticed the clouds begin to darken to the north and checked the radar to see if the storm would reach us. It was quite a large storm, but I thought it was just skirt the area and primarily be to our north. Well, I was wrong. I'm guessing that between the time I checked the radar and the time the storm hit it had grown. At about 3:15pm, the wind increased and the rain began to fall. The rain was heavy and then became horizontal as the wind began to howl. Winds were coming out of the NW at first and then shifted to the north as the rain increased. The winds were sustained at over 30mph for the duration of the storm with gusts as high as 48mph. This was the strongest wind of the year so far. The rain and the wind continued for at least 20 minutes. The power eventually went out during the storm. The total rain fall was 1.78" in about one hours time.

You can see how strong the wind was in the picture below. The small tree in the foreground should be perfectly straight, but you can see it is leaning at a 45 degree angle. Also, notice the rain being whipped over the garage! So cool.

There wasn't any significant damage, but several medium sized limbs were blown out of locust trees. As a result, my new satellite dish became a casualty of the storm. A two inch diameter tree limb hit my satellite dish knocking me offline. At first I didn't think it was that big of a deal. I went out, removed the limb, inspected for damage, saw none so I came inside. Once the storm was over, and the power came back on, I powered up the computer and found that my signal strength was at 23%. It should have been at about 60%. Apparently, the limb knocked something out of align on the dish. I was told that it would take up to 7 days to get a technician out here to fix the problem. Until then, I'm back on dial-up which means no real-time data for the website. I will try to update the website once a day, but I may wait until the satellite is back online.

Expanding Drought?

The severe drought classification has reached the extreme southeastern counties of Indiana. However, with the rainfall that came the last week of June, the northward progression of the severe classification has stopped. A new map will be released on July 5. We'll see what has changed then. Today is the data cutoff for the new map, so if we get any rain tomorrow, July 4, it will not be represented in the new map.

June 2007: A local perspective

According to the NWS in Indianapolis, June 2007 was warmer and drier than normal. Could that be the case here? Let's find out.

There were only two 90+ degree days in June. On the 16th, the thermometer topped out at 90.5 while on the 17th it topped out at 91.4. There were only six other days in June with a high temperature of 87 or above. The lowest temperature recorded for the month was 49.4 recorded on June 6th. The mean temperature for the month was 71.2 which was 0.9 above normal. As a result, I'd have to say that the month ended up to be normal as far as temperatures go.

The month of June was dry. We don't need a rain gauge to tell us that. One look at the lawns, crops, and area lakes, rivers, and streams give plenty indication of just how dry June turned out to be. For the month, we ended up with 3.22" of rainfall. Nearly 2.5" of that total fell in the last ten days of the month with 1.7" falling the last three days of the month. Overall, we ended up being 1.12" below normal in rainfall.

With the increased rainfall in the end of the month, the drought has eased somewhat. Lawns are beginning to green up and grow a bit more now, but ponds and streams are still low. We'll see what July has in store for us. Thunderstorms are in the forecast for the 4th of July holiday, so maybe our bout of dry weather has ended.

June 2007: Warm and Dry

From the NWS in Indianapolis:

June 2007 ends as it began with near normal conditions. June will go down in the records books as slightly warmer and moderately dryer than normal.

Temperature

The average temperature for the month ended 2.5 degrees above normal with an average of 74.2. The average high was 84.3 with an average low of 64.1. The thermometer rose to 90 or above on 5 days which is above the normal of 3.3 days. The highest reading was 93 on the 16^th and 17^th. The lowest reading occurred on the 6^th with 53 degrees.

Precipitation

According to official readings from the airport, the month was dryer than normal. This was especially true through the first half of the month as just over three quarters of an inch of precipitation was recorded from the 1^st through the 18^th. In contrast, 0.73 inches of rain fell in a 24 hour period between the 23^rd and the 24^th. The period from the 9^th through the 16^th had no rainfall and only a trace was reported on the 17^th and 18^th. This dry spell elevated the drought conditions to moderate by the middle of the month.

Precipitation which fell in the latter half of the month brought the monthly total to 2.22 inches, which is 1.91 inches below normal. The rain was widespread and many areas around central Indiana received heavier amounts of rain with thunderstorms the last 10 days of the month. Drought conditions eased somewhat for central Indiana, but we still remain abnormally dry. The yearly total precipitation is 20.29 inches which is 0.71 inches below normal.

Other Notable Features

The peak wind was 53 mph from the northwest on the 22^nd and is the highest wind gust so far this year. We had 7 days with thunderstorms and 11 days with measurable precipitation. Sunshine for the month registered 71 percent of normal which is 6 percent above normal.