Happy Birthday, WeatherTAP!

MAIN THREATS

No major threats in the foreseeable future.

SUMMARY

Today is weatherTAP’s 20th birthday! On this day in 1998, weatherTAP was showcased at the OshKosh air show in Wisconsin. Folks were standing in line to see our products. We were the first in the industry to offer nationwide online weather radar! Cheers to many, many more!

Today, we offer over 10,000 weather products to our subscribers. To celebrate this milestone, we are offering weatherTAP for FREE for everyone today! Just type in “birthday” for both the username and password and you’ll have access to it all!

The forecast is looking great for a birthday today, as well as for the next few days. We have a chance for a shower or storm Friday, but that’s about all the action we’ll see until Sunday night.

By Sunday night, a frontal system begins to approach and scattered showers and storms may develop overnight. Those chances will continue in earnest on Monday and into Tuesday.  That will wrap up July on a very wet note, making this one of the wetter/cooler Julys we’ve seen in some time.

The chance for severe storms looks low, at this time, with next week’s systems.

DISCUSSION

There’s not much left to say here. Next week’s rain-making systems don’t look especially interesting. We’ll see scattered showers and storms about every day, with rain chances perhaps decreasing by the end of the week. It’s too early to tell that for sure, though. If you plan on hitting the 127 Yard Sales just be prepared to dodge some showers and storms. The good news is that it’s not going to be terribly hot next week, even as we slip into August.

I don’t foresee any major severe weather outbreaks, or major flooding issues.

TROPICS

Insert <yawn>

RECORDS

On this day in 1952 the airmass across Middle Tennessee was especially dry and dessert-like. Dry air heats up quick, but it also cools down quickly, since dry air can’t hold heat. Just think about how hot and sticky humid summer nights are. The moisture in the air holds the heat and the night can’t cool off.

That was not the case 66 years ago today. The dry air allowed Nashville’s temp to drop down to a nice 63 degrees during the morning, but allowed temps to soar to 103 that afternoon! Forty-degree temperature swings were noted all across the state that day.

On this day in 1943, Tishomingo, Oklahoma’s temperature soared to 121 degrees, a state record. If you’ve never been to Oklahoma in the summer you haven’t lived (ha). The heat is one thing, but there’s also a hot breeze that blows. Everything just bakes. Oh, and you’ll hear folks in the South say, “Yeah, but it’s a dry heat.” It may be dry but it’s still over 100 degrees! It’s miserable…

I had a weatherTAP Facebook follower message me yesterday from Oklahoma. He said he was a utility line worker from Missouri sent to do some work in Oklahoma. He said the temp got to 110 one day last week where he’s working. Can you imagine? He said he was ready to get out of there.

But, thankfully, we don’t have ANYTHING like that in sight for us. So far, this summer has been very kind to us temperature-wise.

WEATHER/SCIENCE NEWS

This is a new section I’ll start today and I’ll post it whenever there is any weather or science news.

Yesterday, I learned that a new instrument being used by NASA to study Mars made a remarkable discovery. We already know that ice caps cover the poles of Mars, which is extraordinary in itself, but we now know with great certainty that there are underground lakes on Mars. In this particular announcement, NASA reported that there are strong indications of a 12-mile wide lake about a mile beneath the surface. This raises a host of questions and makes us wonder, what’s in that water?

So tonight, when you look up and see that beautiful red “star” in the southeastern sky, you can be even more assured that Mars is a destination unlike any other we’ve ever targeted. And you can wonder, like me, just what discoveries await us there?

You all have a great day! And happy birthday, weatherTAP!!!