Tuesday, May 26, 2009

A chilly few days

Mark

Hi everyone, here’s what’s On My Radar today...on the heels of an absolutely BEAUTIFUL Memorial Day, temperatures today certainly left a lot to be desired…and wait until Wednesday! Temps will run about 15° below normal with periods of rain…yuck !  Well at least this type of weather pattern held off for the holiday weekend and we’ll see a shift back toward warmer air later this week into next week.

Milder air will slowly move in from the south Thursday with temperatures climbing into the 60s with scattered showers. The air Friday should be warmer and more humid with scattered showers and t-storms. Drier air will arrive over the weekend with seasonable temperatures. High pressure will build along the east coast early next week with temperatures warming Monday & Tuesday…perhaps well into the 70s and low 80s in some areas!

June is right around the corner (can you believe it?) and the days of sustained warmth and humidty are as well. Days like Monday with the deep blue sky and low humidity are rare but are BEAUTIFUL when we get them!! Here’s hoping we’ll see a few more of those type of days real soon. Thanks for reading!!

Wednesday, May 20, 2009

If we could bottle this…

Mark

Hi everyone, here’s what’s On My Radar today…the unseasonably warm weather we’re experiencing the rest of the week is a welcome break from the chilly, damp weather we had just a few days ago. This is the kind of weather you’d like to bottle and save for July & August when the temperatures are just about as warm but the humidity levels are MUCH higher. Put it this way, today’s dewpoint (a clear indicator of humidity in the air) was in the 30s and lower 40s…in mid-Summer typical dewpoints are in the 65-75° range. Simply put, the higher the number the more uncomfortable we feel.

So it really was a near perfect day of weather with highs ranging from 70° along the Rhode Island south coast to the mid 80s north & west of Providence. The humidity levels will rise a bit Thursday & Friday as the southwest wind flow continues to carry in more moisture. Cooler air will infiltrate this weekend with periods of showers, especially late Saturday into Sunday morning. Although it turns cooler, temperatures should actually top out near the average of 70-71°. Enjoy the rest of the week and have a GREAT holiday weekend…thanks for reading

Monday, May 11, 2009

Official tornado in western Massachusetts

Mark

Hi everyone, here’s what’s On My Radar today…first of all, I hope all the moms out there had a great Mother’s Day. Hopefully the wind didn’t cause too many problems…at least the rain was gone so we could get outside, even if just for a little while. Well, Saturday was just a damp day for us but it was a VERY stormy day for our friends in western Massachusetts. In fact in the town of Sunderland a confirmed tornado touched down just after 7PM. The storm brought wind speeds estimated at 60-70 mph and only stayed on the ground for about 1/2 mile but it ripped the roof off a barn. Click here for more on the tornado.

Right now an unseasonably cold pool of air sits over the northeast and it will be responsible for triggering some afternoon showers and isolated thunderstorms Tuesday. Since the air above is so cold, there is the potential for any thunderstorm to contain small hail. There does not appear to be a threat for strong wind from the showers/storms Tuesday since high pressure will be parked just off to our east.

This pool of cold air will shift to our east Wednesday allowing the high pressure to move over us…the result: a sunny, mild day! Another fast moving system will bring rain through the area Thursday but the trend will be for drier, warmer air to take over Friday & Saturday. Highs Friday will make it into the lower 70s away from the coast, Saturday may be a touch cooler since the wind will be out of the south/southeast. The EARLY word on the rest of the weekend is “wetter”...showers may creep in Saturday night and last off & on through Sunday.

The average high is now 67°...by next Monday that number jumps to 69° and by May 31st the average high is 73°...that’s only 2 1/2 weeks away! We’re certainly in the full swing of Spring now…the sun is strong but the ocean water is still cool (mid 50s most areas) so we battle the wind direction when forecasting high temperatures…by late June and July that difference won’t be as dramatic. Have a great week…enjoy the Spring weather and thanks for reading!  Mark

Monday, May 04, 2009

More “May” Showers

Mark

Hi everyone…here’s what’s On My Radar today…although it turned out to be a wetter than average April (5.87” of rain vs. 4.16” average) it has been dry lately. Only a few hundreths of an inch of rain in Providence over the last 10 days or so. So I guess with that in mind, we certainly could use a good soaking of rain, nice for the gardens and lawns. But we find ourselves in a pattern of damp weather but not much substantial rain.

If the forecast guidance is corect this will change over the course of the week. We will see several waves of low pressure swing over the area through the end of the week. The best chance of a soaking rain looks to come later Tuesday night into Wednesday morning. Weds. afternoon should dry out, we may even catch a little sun! Another round of rain will affect the area Wednesday night into Thursday with scattered showers on Friday.

Temperatures look chilly Tuesday for early May but the trend should be for increasing high temps over the week, with highs approaching 70° Thursday through Saturday. The potential is there for an inch or more of rain by early Friday but the pattern of the rain will be sporadic…meaning not a widespread soaking…some of us will get more than others. And it’s a little too early nail down the weekend forecast, especially in this type of pattern but it sure would be nice if the trend holds…drying working in Saturday and lasting through Sunday…we’ll see!

Thanks for reading