Spring Thunder

The warmth has arrived. The current temperature at 11:30pm is 58F (14C) and it continues to rise as the warm air flows northward from the Gulf of Mexico. It's amazing to see how the weather can change in just a few days. The map at right shows the current temperature across the country at 11pm. I posted an identical map five days ago (December 21) showing much colder temperatures at the same time of night, 11pm.
There were a few thunderstorms in the area today with some heavy rain. Two-tenths of an inch of rain fell through the day today with most of that coming in the morning hours with the thunderstorms.
Fog has been a problem through the day today too. At times, visibility was reduced to zero. The warm air flowing over the still frozen ground caused the dense fog.
The temperature forecast for tomorrow has us at 66F (19C) and Cincinnati at 71F (22C). The threat for severe weather has been pushed back to the west for Saturday. Winter should return Sunday with a high temperature of about 40F (5C) with wind west winds around 20mph and wind chills as low as 28F (-2C).

No White Christmas

We didn't wind up with a white Christmas here at home, but many across the northern half of the country did. In fact, a lot of areas in the Pacific Northwest had snow on the ground today when they normally do not. Seattle, Washington has been hit with storm after storm in the last couple of weeks which has paralyzed the city. Heavy snow is not typical for the city and they don't have the equipment needed to clear the streets.

Here at home, the weather will be more like April over the next couple of days. High temperatures by Saturday may hit 70F (21C). Yet another storm will be moving across the Midwest bringing a big surge of warm air out of the Gulf followed by colder air Sunday. The possibility of some severe weather is also in the forecast. Click on the image below to see the details.

Weather Roller Coaster

The most recent storm brought a brief period of freezing rain last night making travel conditions almost impossible. Temperatures slowly rose through the evening though and by 10pm were above freezing. Today's high should be in the low 50's before beginning to tumble into the low 20's by this evening. So far, 1.22" of rain has fallen, but more is on the way.

Winter Returns

Just one day after some record warmth on Friday with temperatures reaching into the upper 50's, the temperatures have dropped like a rock. Currently, the temperature is 0F (-18C) with a windchill temperature of -20F (-29C). The forecast low had us dropping to +4F tonight, but it seems we've dropped more than what was expected. Wind Chill warnings have been issued until 10am Monday morning. Winds in the 20-30mph range with gusts to 40mph will create wind chills that could reach -36F (-38C). Tomorrow's high temperature is expected to rise to about +15F (-10C) with below zero wind chills. If we just had a good snow pack on the ground the actual air temperatures would be well below zero. Too bad we don't have that snow pack. :-(

It's Springtime... at least it feels like it.

Overnight, temperatures remained below freezing as the rainfall moved into the area. Ice coated just about everything making travel difficult on foot as well as by car. Slowly, the temperature began to creep upwards by a tenth of a degree every 10 minutes or so until we were above freezing at 5am. The warmer temperatures and falling rain began to melt a lot of the ice that had accumulated on the roadway, but there were still slushy patches as I made my way to work at 7:40am. The real story is the rise in temperature. At 8am, the temperature was 34 and at 9:25am the temperature was 52! The forecast says we'll hit 56 today before the cold front moves in mid afternoon and the mercury begins to drop. Overnight lows will be in the 20's.

Interesting side note... the warm temperatures that are moving in are creating dense areas of fog. I'm at work now (last day before Christmas break and my classes aren't showing up) and the fog is just rolling down off the hills and into the river valley. I wonder what it looks like at home now?

The storm was a prolific rain maker as 1.10" of rain has fallen since midnight. Further to the north, ice and snow accumulations are great too. Milwaukee, Wisconsin received over ten inches of snow (top photo) as did Grand Rapids, Michigan (bottom photo).

The rest of the afternoon should be dry, but winds will begin to increase as the front approaches.

From the NWS...

A STRONG LOW PRESSURE SYSTEM WILL MOVE ACROSS THE REGION THISAFTERNOON...SENDING A COLD FRONT SOUTHEAST ACROSS THE AREA. WINDSWILL INCREASE FROM THE WEST BEHIND THE COLD FRONT WITH WIND GUSTSOF AROUND 45 MPH POSSIBLE THIS AFTERNOON AND EARLY EVENING.RESIDENTS SHOULD TAKE PRECAUTIONS AND TIE DOWN LOOSE OBJECTS THATCAN BECOME AIRBORNE BY THE STRONG WIND GUSTS.

Las Vegas Snow

The active winter weather isn't just across the midwest. The Southewestern US is also experiencing some rather unusual winter weather. On Wednesday, up to 7 inches of snow fell across Las Vegas, Nevada. Three inches of snow were measured on the Vegas strip! It's not unheard of to see snow in Las Vegas, but it is unusual to have so much. A "large" snowfall for Vegas is an inch!

Freezing Drizzle

There's been several winter storm watches and winter weather advisories posted for our area over the last two days, but very little in the way of significant winter weather. Most of the precipitation fell south of the Ohio river. There was a thin strip of 3-5 inches of snow across eastern Kentucky and south eastern Ohio. Locally, freezing drizzle was the problem forcing schools to dismiss early on Tuesday and close on Wednesday. Temperatures have hovered in the low to mid 20's over the two day period.

There are three more winter storms heading our way over the next week. Each storm will track further to the south, so the first storm will just be bringing some heavy rain to our area. Storm two, will come in on Sunday bringing more snow and freezing rain to the area. It's storm three that might be the most signifcant for us. That storm should be tracking across the area around the 24th and 25th. It would be great if we could have heavy snow falling on Christmas Day! Time will tell though. Storm three is still in the Pacific Ocean and anything could happen over the next week.

Sharp Temperature Drop

A powerful cold front brought temperatures crashing down during the early morning hours across the state today. Temperatures fell 36 degrees in a 13 hour period. The drop was even greater in some parts of the state where temperatures fell as much as 45 degrees over the same 13 hour period. At 6am this morning, the temperature was 53 and by 7pm this evening, the temperature was 17. The graph is from my own weather station and you can see the progression of the drop.
This isn't the largest temperature drop recorded in the state though. The greatest single day temperature drop was in 1916 when the temperature went from a high of 68 to a low of 10. Source: Indianapolis NWS

Snow in the Big Easy

I'm not sure how often this happens, but a significant snow for the deep south occurred on Thursday. Winter storm warnings were issued for much of Southeastern Louisiana and Southern Mississippi through the day Thursday. An inch of snow fell on New Orleans and several more fell in Mississippi. It looks from the traffic cameras that there were very few traffic problems due to the warm pavement temperatures, but what a treat for folks in that part of the country at Christmas time. I'm sure there are several kids and maybe adults too who had never seen snow before.

Snowy Saturday

The snow has been falling just about all day long today. Only about an inch and a half has accumulated, but it was enough to cover the ground and the roads. I left for Richmond at 3pm this afternoon and the back roads were snow covered, but the highways were just wet. On my way home at 5pm, the snow picked up in intensity and the temperature was dropping. As a result, the main roads were becoming very slick and snow covered. I saw one car that had slid off the road on a hillside. The car will have to be pulled up onto the road with a wrecker. I think the driver was going a bit too fast on the hill.