What a pleasant weekend! After highs in the upper 70s on Friday we fell back to the 50s for most of the afternoon on Saturday and Sunday, briefly hitting 60 degrees each day. Lows fell to the low and mid 30s yesterday and again this morning and after an unusually warm first half of April we’re finally feeling more “normal” temperatures…and that will continue for the final 11 days of the month. Now that temperatures are returning to normal, the one thing we’re missing is rainfall. The showers and thunderstorms on Friday with widespread, but the rainfall from the fast-moving storms was limited with only a few locations getting .25” to .50”. Officially the Northern Kentucky Airport is at .50” for the month. We typically receive around 4 inches of rain in April, but I doubt we’ll get half of that by next Friday, April 30th. There is more rain coming, however…read on.
You’ll notice scattered clouds over the next few days because of a more turbulent atmosphere, and a weak storm system will pass just south of us tomorrow. Showers may reach as far north as some Kentucky counties in the Tri-State area, but any rainfall will be spotty and rather light. Either way, clouds will expand northward tomorrow with light northerly winds. After highs in the mid 60s under partly cloudy skies today, we’ll climb to the mid 60s again tomorrow.
On Wednesday, a weak disturbance and cold front will move southeast across the Midwest producing isolated showers and thundershowers, mainly north and west of the Tri-State, though we may see a shower or thundershower here. Obviously we’re not going to get needed rain tomorrow or Wednesday, but it shows that we’re at least “trending” more toward stormy weather. Highs will be in the upper 60s on Wednesday.
We’ll get a break on Thursday with partly cloudy skies and highs near 70 followed by increasing clouds as a large western storm approaches on Friday. Spotty showers and thunderstorms may develop by Friday afternoon and evening with showers and thunderstorms likely on Saturday and Sunday. The weekend timing may not be good, but we may get some needed rainfall with early model forecasts showing .50” to more than 1 inch in much of the area by Sunday evening…and there are strong hints that the same storm may linger on Monday and Tuesday of next week. It has been a while since we had a 5-day storm, but this could be an excellent way to make up part of the rainfall deficit for April.
In global and space weather we’re now on our 4th day without sunspots, something we haven’t seen since late last year…and a sign that the sun remains extremely quiet. The Pacific Ocean is steadily cooling now that the equatorial warmth of El Nino is fading, and the Icelandic volcano continues to erupt with the ash, smoke and sulfur dioxide heading across the northern Pacific Ocean and heading into North America. The last time this volcano erupted it lasted nearly a year. Let’s hope it doesn’t this time or the impacts will be global and extreme…from weather changes to the collapse of many airlines.
Active volcanoes are now being reported in Alaska, Japan, Indonesia, near Fiji in the western Pacific Ocean, northern South America and southern Italy. Any additional eruptions will throw more pollution into the upper atmosphere (which includes a lot of evil CO2 by the way) and we’ll continue to favor a cooling pattern across the northern hemisphere. I am watching this set-up closely and will follow-up with my thoughts on May 2010 in the next couple of updates. Until then, have a great Monday and enjoy the sunshine and cleaner air!
Keep your eyes on the sky and enjoy the changing weather!
