Chilly...!

A cold front passing through the area Friday evening resulting in unseasonably cool temperatures Saturday and last night. In fact, observations out at KGFK indicated that the official low temperature dropped below the 40° mark! This is the coolest temperatures recorded in several months.

 Site      Time      Tmp Dpt %RH W/H Wdr Wsp Wgs Cld 6hX 6hN
----------------------------------------------------------------
 KGFK Aug 24 1041UTC  41  41 100       W   6     SCT         
 KGFK Aug 24 1053UTC  42  41  96     WSW   3     SCT        
 KGFK Aug 24 1153UTC  41  40  96           0     CLR  46  39

Roll cloud over KC

Nice roll cloud sitting over western parts of Kansas City this morning:



I happened to be stepping through WeatherCams this morning and found this. Pretty cool, considering I haven't seen one of these things in quite some time.

Extensive squall line

Wow, what a squall line over the mid-section of the country tonight!



Especially interesting with this thing is that while the squall line itself is propagating east-southeastward, the stratiform rain behind is training northeast along the frontal boundary.

Lots of places are going to see flooding concerns continuing through a good portion of tonight and into Monday.

Meso-low on Visible Satellite

I noticed this in the Visible satellite imagery a couple of days ago and saved some data. If you look closely at the loop below, you'll see a subtle rotation in the clouds northwest of Sioux Falls, SD:


(click on the image to see a larger version)

When comparing this with the 20z RUC analysis, you can clearly see the meso-low in the 500mb vorticity fields over the same area:



Kind of cool to see the meso-low being picked up in both the 13km RUC data and in the Visible satellite image.

First 80° day!

And to one up on the 75° we achieved on the 15th, yesterday we warmed all the way up to a very nice, 83° at the airport.

Here are more official numbers from KGFK:

 Site      Time      Tmp Dpt %RH W/H Wdr Wsp Wgs Cld
----------------------------------------------------
 KGFK May 16 1753UTC  80  46  30      NW  14  23 SCT
 KGFK May 16 1853UTC  81  44  27      NW  18  31 SCT
 KGFK May 16 1953UTC  82  37  20     NNW  23  37 SCT
 KGFK May 16 2053UTC  77  38  24     NNE  26  38 SCT
 KGFK May 16 2153UTC  76  34  22       N  26  36 FEW
 KGFK May 16 2253UTC  74  33  22       N  29  37 FEW
 KGFK May 16 2353UTC  71  32  24  72   N  24  34 SCT

Warmest yet!

We had quite a day today... Reaching not only temperatures above 70° for the first time in 2008, we reached a toasty 75° F!

Here are the official numbers from KGFK:

 Site      Time      Tmp Dpt %RH W/H Wdr Wsp Wgs 6hX 6hN 
---------------------------------------------------------
 KGFK May 15 1753UTC  70  40  34  74   W   9  16 71  38 
 KGFK May 15 1853UTC  74  38  27      NW  16  22        
 KGFK May 15 1953UTC  71  34  26  73 WNW  13            
 KGFK May 15 2053UTC  70  33  25  72  NW  18  22        
 KGFK May 15 2153UTC  72  34  25  73  NW  12            
 KGFK May 15 2253UTC  68  35  29     NNW  13            
 KGFK May 15 2353UTC  70  35  28  73   N  10     75  68 

First Thunder!

No, it certainly wasn't this morning (when, we're reporting snow, temperatures at 28, and wind chills at 13!), we did officially report our first thunderstorm of the season on Monday, April 21:

 Site      Time      Tmp Dpt %RH W/H Wdr Wsp Wgs Vis  Wx
--------------------------------------------------------
 KGFK Apr 21 1532UTC  37  34  89  28 WNW  16     7.00 TSRA  
 KGFK Apr 21 1547UTC  37  34  89  28   W  14     2.00 TSRA BR 
 KGFK Apr 21 1553UTC  37  34  89  27 WNW  17     3.00 TSRA BR 
 KGFK Apr 21 1612UTC  37  34  89  29   W  13     6.00 -TSRA BR

A radar grab from around 10:20am showed the line of storms pushing up from the southwest. Also note those temperatures at GFK (Grand Forks International) and at RDR (the Grand Forks Air Force Base). Probably, a contributer to why we saw pea-sized hail from these things here in the city. Freezing levels were obviously very low.

Not only did we see our first lightning flash, albeit only a couple CC flashes, but we heard our first rumble of thunder and observed our first hail, as well.

I wouldn't mind seeing more of that. Just as soon as we get rid of this snow, damnit! Looks like we have about an inch, maybe out there this morning. It's hard to tell with the wind blowing it around.

Time for me to get home... More later!

Spring is officially here!

Yes, the previous entry was verified. It turned out the NAM/GFS blended solution was much closer than the GEM 2m temperatures. Tuesday resulted in an official high of 70° F out at the airport. That makes the first 70° day of 2008.

Since Tuesday, we've been somewhat cooler, but we're still holding in the 60's. The past several days have been very nice, with hardly a cloud in the sky and high temperatures in the mid 60's. Today, I wasn't expecting as warm of temperatures with the clouds moving in this morning. It was 48° around 1:00pm, but we still managed a high of 61 today out at GFK, with the clearing skies later this afternoon.

We still could have been out there shooting some hoops. I canceled the outing because I was to meet a few co-workers at 2:00pm, and temps were just near 50° and we had a fairly stiff south-southeasterly wind at 15-18 mph. A little breezy for basketball.

I'm hoping in the next week or two, that we bust through that 70 degree plateau. Maybe even get some thunderstorms up in here. Ahh, what I wouldn't do to hear some thunder!

Mild temperatures

Temperatures have been on a serious rebound the last couple of days. Yesterday, we reached the 50° mark for the first time and today, we have topped out at 53.

Here are some numbers from yesterday and today:

 Site      Time      Tmp Dpt %RH W/H Wdr Wsp Wgs
------------------------------------------------
 KGFK Apr 02 1853UTC  47  32  56     SSW  13    
 KGFK Apr 02 1953UTC  48  30  49      SW  12    
 KGFK Apr 02 2053UTC  51  25  36     WSW  13  21
 KGFK Apr 02 2153UTC  50  22  33       W  13  22
 KGFK Apr 02 2253UTC  50  22  33       W   9    
 KGFK Apr 02 2353UTC  48  21  34     WSW   7    

 KGFK Apr 03 1653UTC  50  21  32       W  12    
 KGFK Apr 03 1753UTC  51  20  29     WNW  12    
 KGFK Apr 03 1853UTC  52  21  29       W  14  22
 KGFK Apr 03 1953UTC  53  21  28     WNW  14  23
 KGFK Apr 03 2053UTC  53  22  30       W  14    
 KGFK Apr 03 2153UTC  53  22  30     WNW   9    
 KGFK Apr 03 2253UTC  53  22  30      NW  10    
 KGFK Apr 03 2353UTC  51  22  32     NNW   3    

It was quite nice to climb into the car this afternoon and feel the warmth from that April sun.

Strong March Sun

We officially hit the 40° mark today... Not only did it feel wonderful, it's making a great dent on the snow-cover. Late last week, I reported the first sighting of grass in nearly 4 months and we now have very large areas of brown grass around the area.

That strong March sun is working it's magic, for sure.

Here are the official numbers from GFK this afternoon:

 Site      Time      Tmp Dpt %RH W/H Wdr Wsp 
---------------------------------------------
 KGFK Mar 18 1753UTC  40  30  67  33  NW  12 
 KGFK Mar 18 1853UTC  43  28  55     NNW  10 
 KGFK Mar 18 1953UTC  43  30  60     NNW  12 
 KGFK Mar 18 2053UTC  43  28  55      NW  10 
 KGFK Mar 18 2153UTC  43  25  49      NW  12 
 KGFK Mar 18 2253UTC  43  27  53      NW   7 
 KGFK Mar 18 2353UTC  40  26  57  36  NW   6 

major winter storm

Another major winter storm is continuing over the Ohio Valley late tonight... As you can see to the right, the Columbus, Ohio area is simply getting dumped on at the present time. Areas of southern Indiana and portions of central Ohio, stretching into northeastern Ohio and northwestern PA are going to receive a hefty accumulation out of this system. It wouldn't surprise me to see a few spots with well over a foot of snow, especially over central and northeastern Ohio through late tonight.

Lots of Gulf and Atlantic moisture wrapping into this system currently with southerly winds aloft acting as a potent conveyor belt. Add to that plenty of cold air and you're bound to see lots of snow. High pressure over the western Great Lakes is contributing to problems as well, providing a tight gradient and thusly blizzard conditions over parts of southeastern Indiana and western Ohio.

It isn't particularly rare to see major winter storms during the early part of March in this part of the country but it isn't exactly common either. Hopefully, not for just those people in the Ohio Valley, but us at work, this will be the last major winter storm there for the rest of the winter.

Spring is technically only a couple of weeks away, right?

A whole new definition

This certainly ranks right up there with the most counties I've ever seen included in one severe weather warning. It gives an all new definition to the term "blanket warning!" This is just crazy...

BULLETIN - EAS ACTIVATION REQUESTED
SEVERE THUNDERSTORM WARNING
NATIONAL WEATHER SERVICE INDIANAPOLIS IN
658 PM EST TUE JAN 29 2008

THE NATIONAL WEATHER SERVICE IN INDIANAPOLIS HAS ISSUED A

* SEVERE THUNDERSTORM WARNING FOR...
BARTHOLOMEW COUNTY IN CENTRAL INDIANA...
THIS INCLUDES THE CITY OF COLUMBUS...
BOONE COUNTY IN CENTRAL INDIANA...
CLINTON COUNTY IN CENTRAL INDIANA...
THIS INCLUDES THE CITY OF FRANKFORT...
WESTERN DECATUR COUNTY IN CENTRAL INDIANA...
HAMILTON COUNTY IN CENTRAL INDIANA...
HANCOCK COUNTY IN CENTRAL INDIANA...
HENDRICKS COUNTY IN CENTRAL INDIANA...
HOWARD COUNTY IN CENTRAL INDIANA...
THIS INCLUDES THE CITY OF KOKOMO...
JOHNSON COUNTY IN CENTRAL INDIANA...
MADISON COUNTY IN CENTRAL INDIANA...
THIS INCLUDES THE CITY OF ANDERSON...
MARION COUNTY IN CENTRAL INDIANA...
THIS INCLUDES THE CITY OF INDIANAPOLIS...
MORGAN COUNTY IN CENTRAL INDIANA...
WESTERN RUSH COUNTY IN CENTRAL INDIANA...
SHELBY COUNTY IN CENTRAL INDIANA...
THIS INCLUDES THE CITY OF SHELBYVILLE...
TIPTON COUNTY IN CENTRAL INDIANA...
WESTERN DELAWARE COUNTY IN EAST CENTRAL INDIANA...
WESTERN HENRY COUNTY IN EAST CENTRAL INDIANA...
EASTERN CARROLL COUNTY IN NORTH CENTRAL INDIANA...
BROWN COUNTY IN SOUTH CENTRAL INDIANA...
JACKSON COUNTY IN SOUTH CENTRAL INDIANA...
THIS INCLUDES THE CITY OF SEYMOUR...
LAWRENCE COUNTY IN SOUTH CENTRAL INDIANA...
THIS INCLUDES THE CITY OF BEDFORD...
MONROE COUNTY IN SOUTH CENTRAL INDIANA...
THIS INCLUDES THE CITY OF BLOOMINGTON...
JENNINGS COUNTY IN SOUTHEAST INDIANA...
EXTREME NORTHEASTERN OWEN COUNTY IN WEST CENTRAL INDIANA...
EXTREME SOUTHEASTERN PUTNAM COUNTY IN WEST CENTRAL INDIANA...

* UNTIL 745 PM EST

* AT 653 PM EST...TRAINED WEATHER SPOTTERS REPORTED A LINE OF SEVERE THUNDERSTORMS CAPABLE OF PRODUCING DESTRUCTIVE WINDS IN EXCESS OF 70 MPH. THESE STORMS WERE LOCATED ALONG A LINE EXTENDING FROM 10 MILES NORTH OF FLORA TO 25 MILES SOUTHWEST OF MITCHELL...OR ALONG A LINE EXTENDING FROM 8 MILES SOUTHWEST OF LOGANSPORT TO 23 MILES EAST OF PETERSBURG...AND MOVING EAST AT 80 MPH.

* SEVERE THUNDERSTORMS WILL BE NEAR...
WHITESTOWN BY 705 PM EST...
ZIONSVILLE BY 710 PM EST...
WINDFALL BY 715 PM EST...
WHITELAND BY 720 PM EST...

THIS INCLUDES INTERSTATE 65 BETWEEN MILE MARKERS 37 AND 156.

THIS INCLUDES INTERSTATE 69 BETWEEN MILE MARKERS 0 AND 52.

THIS INCLUDES INTERSTATE 70 BETWEEN MILE MARKERS 48 AND 121.

THIS INCLUDES INTERSTATE 74 BETWEEN MILE MARKERS 47 AND 135.

FOR YOUR PROTECTION MOVE TO AN INTERIOR ROOM ON THE LOWEST FLOOR OF YOUR HOME OR BUSINESS. THIS STORM HAS THE POTENTIAL TO CAUSE SERIOUS INJURY AND SIGNIFICANT DAMAGE TO PROPERTY.

THIS STORM HAS A HISTORY OF PRODUCING DESTRUCTIVE WINDS AND LARGE DAMAGING HAIL. SEEK SHELTER NOW INSIDE A STURDY STRUCTURE AND STAY AWAY FROM WINDOWS!

THIS STORM HAS A HISTORY OF PRODUCING WIDESPREAD WIND DAMAGE ACROSS CENTRAL INDIANA WITH WINDS IN EXCESS OF 60 TO 80 MPH REPORTED. THIS IS AN EXTREMELY DANGEROUS SITUATION. SEEK SHELTER NOW INSIDE A STURDY STRUCTURE AND STAY AWAY FROM WINDOWS!

That's 25 counties whole or partially included in this warning! Granted, we're dealing with an intense squall line here. Also of particular note is the forward progression! Moving east at 80 mph!?! The line itself, isn't moving eastward quite that fast. I'm assuming the NWS caught the 80mph out of some SCIT information for an embedded cell in the echo wave pattern. Either way, seems like folks in Illinois and those back home in Indiana are dealing with some damaging winds this evening.

Soon enough, they'll find themselves at 10° or 20° F with snow falling... and winds at 30 mph! Pretty incredible system...

Plummeting, once again!

Temperatures outside this morning are dropping like a rock, once again. It's days like this that really make me look forward to those 90 and 100° days in June and July! Hopefully, they're not too far away...

 Site      Time      Tmp Dpt W/H Wdr Wsp Wgs   Vis  Wx
-----------------------------------------------------------
 KGFK Jan 29 0705UTC  -0  -8 -26  NW  33  44  0.50 BLSN  
 KGFK Jan 29 0721UTC  -2  -8 -28  NW  32  40  0.75 BLSN  
 KGFK Jan 29 0753UTC  -3 -10 -30  NW  32  46  0.75 BLSN  
 KGFK Jan 29 0800UTC  -2  -9 -26 WNW  25  39  3.00 BLSN  
 KGFK Jan 29 0813UTC  -2  -9 -27  NW  28  39  1.50 BLSN  
 KGFK Jan 29 0816UTC  -2 -11 -29  NW  33  40  2.00 BLSN  
 KGFK Jan 29 0839UTC  -4 -11 -32 WNW  34  44  1.00 BLSN  
 KGFK Jan 29 0853UTC  -5 -11 -32 WNW  30  43  1.00 BLSN  
 KGFK Jan 29 0930UTC  -6 -15 -33  NW  30  44  3.00 BLSN  
 KGFK Jan 29 0948UTC  -6 -13 -33  NW  31  40  1.75 -SN BLSN 
 KGFK Jan 29 0953UTC  -6 -13 -34  NW  32  40  1.25 -SN BLSN 
 KGFK Jan 29 1004UTC  -8 -15 -35  NW  28  45  3.00 BLSN  
 KGFK Jan 29 1020UTC  -8 -15 -37 WNW  33  43  1.75 BLSN  
 KGFK Jan 29 1028UTC  -8 -15 -35  NW  29  43  3.00 BLSN  
 KGFK Jan 29 1053UTC  -7 -16 -32 WNW  25  37  6.00 BLSN  
 KGFK Jan 29 1153UTC  -8 -17 -36 WNW  30  41  4.00 BLSN  
 KGFK Jan 29 1253UTC  -9 -19 -35  NW  25  38  8.00   
 KGFK Jan 29 1353UTC -11 -22 -38  NW  25  37  7.00   
 KGFK Jan 29 1453UTC -12 -22 -42  NW  31  38  4.00 BLSN  
 KGFK Jan 29 1553UTC -13 -22 -42 WNW  28  36  3.00 BLSN

Super-Saturation

A rather unique observation from early this morning:

 Site      Time      Tmp Dpt %RH  Wgs Cld Ceilg  MSLP  Wx
----------------------------------------------------------
 KLGC Jan 27 0900UTC  28  30 109    0     CLR   UNL   5.00   

You don't see surface RH's at 109% very often!

heat burst!

I'll have to go back and check on this, but we may have busted through the freezing point for the first time in nearly 2 months this morning!

  Site      Time      Tmp Dpt %RH W/H Wdr Wsp Cld   MSLP 
----------------------------------------------------------
 KGFK Jan 06 1053UTC  27  23  85  18   S   9  BKN   994.9 
 KGFK Jan 06 1153UTC  32  26  78  23 WSW  12  OVC   995.4 
 KGFK Jan 06 1204UTC  34  27  75  27 WSW   9  OVC        
 KGFK Jan 06 1253UTC  32  27  82  24  SW   9  OVC   995.2 

I'm sure the sub-zero temps aren't completely done for the season, but this is definitely a nice rebound...

Winding up

Our friendly "little" winter storm appears to be spinning up late this evening:



Can you find the low-pressure system? ;)

I've been catching sporadic reports and I've seen amounts generally from 3 to 5 inches thus far. A deformation band appears to be phasing and stretching from central Illinois through northern Indiana and also is resulting in some moderate to heavy precipitation, especially over the northern half of Indiana. Warm air has really pushed northward with this system and freezing rain and ice pellets have been reported across a large part of Indiana and Ohio, as well. This will limit accumulations some, but I still anticipate some hefty accumulations by Sunday evening over northeastern Indiana and far northwestern Ohio. We have amounts from 11 to 15 inches over these parts in our IN-DOT and O-DOT evening (9:00pm) forecasts.

Cold-ness!

As I expected, we officially reached the first sub-zero temperatures of the season last evening.

Here are the obs from Grand Forks Int'l...
(From 8:53pm CST Monday to 2:53pm Tuesday)

 Site      Time      Tmp Dpt %RH W/H Wdr Wsp Wgs Cld  MSLP 
-----------------------------------------------------------
 KGFK Nov 27 0253UTC   3  -4  72 -16  NW  17  25 OVC 1024.9
 KGFK Nov 27 0353UTC   1  -8  65 -18  NW  17     BKN 1026.3
 KGFK Nov 27 0417UTC  -0  -9  65 -18  NW  15     FEW       
 KGFK Nov 27 0453UTC  -1 -10  65 -18  NW  13     FEW 1027.3
 KGFK Nov 27 0521UTC  -2  -9  71 -17  NW  10     BKN       
 KGFK Nov 27 0553UTC  -3 -11  68 -22 WNW  14     BKN 1028.5
 KGFK Nov 27 0622UTC  -4 -11  71 -21  NW  12     SCT       
 KGFK Nov 27 0653UTC  -4 -12  68 -22  NW  13     CLR 1028.9
 KGFK Nov 27 0753UTC  -6 -13  71 -21  NW   9     CLR 1029.4
 KGFK Nov 27 0853UTC  -8 -14  74 -22 WNW   7     CLR 1030.4
 KGFK Nov 27 0953UTC -10 -16  74 -23 WNW   6     CLR 1031.0
 KGFK Nov 27 1053UTC -11 -16  78 -24 WNW   6     CLR 1031.9
 KGFK Nov 27 1153UTC -10 -16  74 -24   W   7     CLR 1032.6
 KGFK Nov 27 1253UTC -11 -17  74 -18 WNW   3     FEW 1032.0
 KGFK Nov 27 1353UTC -12 -18  74 -24 WSW   5     FEW 1032.6
 KGFK Nov 27 1453UTC  -7 -14  71 -14 WNW   3     BKN 1032.5
 KGFK Nov 27 1553UTC  -5 -12  71           0     BKN 1031.9
 KGFK Nov 27 1653UTC  -3 -11  68 -13   S   5     BKN 1031.8
 KGFK Nov 27 1753UTC  -2 -11  65 -17 SSE   9     OVC 1030.1
 KGFK Nov 27 1853UTC  -1  -9  68 -16 SSE  10     OVC 1029.9
 KGFK Nov 27 1953UTC  -0  -8  68 -12  SE   7     OVC 1028.2
 KGFK Nov 27 2053UTC   1  -7  68 -13  SE   9     OVC 1027.7

Also note these wind chills...! I am definitely NOT prepared for this.