Friday, May 1, 2009

Wet Weekend Ahead For Central States

It's a somewhat rare morning in Denver. We woke up to fog and mist.

It happens here, but so infrequently that when it does, you kind of look around for a minute and double check the clock, the calendar and your location, just to be sure you weren't transported elsewhere during your sleep.

Ok I am being a bit silly -- I think I needed a little more sleep last night. Hang on while I top off my coffee. ;-)

So we are forecasting a socked in weekend with periods of showers weekend along the Front Range of Colorado. It will be warmer than last weekend so the entire city shouldn't wake up to snow like we did on Monday.

But then again it is possible as some data shows snow levels down near 6,000 feet over the weekend.

If it does snow the accumulations would be none to minor at best with the exception of places above 8,500 feet or higher.

This will be weekend #2 like this -- a little irritating since I need to get out in the yard and start a few major projects, but -- I know how precious this moisture is and that our window for long duration, gentle precipitation events is rapidly closing.

Soon we will be into the hot and drier months where we long for afternoon thunderstorms.

A stratiform precipitation event, like what is coming our way this weekend, is great because that means the clouds are socked in, and the precipitation is light and gentle with no convection, or thunderstorms.

Therefore all the moisture, or at least a good percentage of it, has time to absorb into the ground and not run off.

But a little east and south of here, there will be plenty of convection where a lot of water may pour form the sky in a short amount of time.

Numerous flash flood watches have been posted in the midwest this weekend, in particular, across Oklahoma and Missouri.

There is also the risk for periodic rounds of severe thunderstorms in the middle of the country over the next few days.

A severe thunderstorm watch is active even as I type across northeast OK and northwest AR.

Currently a severe storm is in the Enid, OK vicinity where all that tornado damage remains from the storms last week.

Attention East Coasters



If you live on the east coast, this coming week will feature the chance to go and tour the hurricane hunter aircraft if you live in or near the following locations...

  • Monday, May 4: Pease Air National Guard Base, Newington, N.H., 2:30-4:30 p.m.
  • Tuesday, May 5: Republic Airport at Farmingdale, N.Y., 2:30-4:30 p.m.
  • Wednesday, May 6: Raleigh-Durham International Airport, N.C., 3:00-5:00 p.m.
  • Thursday, May 7: Wilmington International Airport, N.C., 3:00-5:00 p.m.
  • Friday, May 8: Naval Air Station Key West at Boca Chica Key, Fla., 1:30-4:00 p.m.

    It is all part of a campaign by the National Hurricane Center to raise awareness about the upcoming hurricane season, which begins June 1.

    If anyone of you can attend and tour the aircraft, be sure to share your experience and a picture or two.

    You can read the full press release by clicking here.
  • 1 comment:

    1. Some of us keep lists of things we want to do. My wife wants to fly on a hurricane surveillance aircraft flight. I've already flown in stormy weather - its not on my list!
      Bob

      ReplyDelete