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Headlines
A rainy & windy Friday
An unsettled weekend
Nice weather to start the new work week
Meteorologist Mark’s Vlog in a Flash
48-Hour WX
Seven-Day Forecast
Daily Forecast Summary
Today: Rain likely and windy. Very mild but turning colder overnight.
Saturday: Partly to mostly cloudy. Showers develop overnight.
Sunday: Morning showers, followed by mostly cloudy skies.
Monday – Tuesday: Mostly sunny and quite pleasant for January!
Wednesday: Partly cloudy, with showers developing overnight.
Thursday: Mostly cloudy, with a chance for showers.
Meteorologist Mark’s Wx Thoughts (New!)
The atmosphere has plenty of wind energy today, but instability is just too weak for robust thunderstorm development. Therefore, just look for rainy conditions today, gusty winds, and perhaps a rumble of thunder. Yesterday it looked like we might have a narrow window of opportunity for a storm to develop and bring down a damaging wind gust, though you may have noted that my confidence was very low in that happening. Never the less, it’s always worth mentioning if there’s even a chance of that happening. Today, it now looks like that’s just not going to be able to happen at all. That’s good news!
A thunderstorm needs decreasing temps with height to be able to grow vertically and become strong. It also needs the right mix of dry and moist air throughout the upper levels of the atmosphere. Today, that mix just isn’t quite right for robust thunderstorms. It’s like having a cake recipe that calls for eight different ingredients and you have six of them in the pantry. You can go ahead and mix it all up and put it in the oven, but you’re not going to end up with a cake!
The severe threat was rather elevated across the Deep South yesterday, yet not one severe weather report was made. That’s a relief for those folks!
I could see us getting another inch or so of rain today, so flooding is not expected.
Our pattern remains active through the weekend, with more rain chances riding the active jet stream. That will give us some showers. There are times when models indicate a rain/snow mix for Saturday night but I’m not quite convinced. I’ll keep an eye on that.
Looking ahead, the pattern looks rather active for January. That could be interesting. Stay tuned.
Threats
On This Day in Wx History
1989 – Those who woke up New Year’s morning unable to see much farther than the end of their nose had a good excuse, at least in the central U.S., as dense fog prevailed from Texas to Wisconsin.
Almanac
Yesterday’s National Temperature Extremes
High: 86° at Tampa, Florida
Low: -16° at Gunnison County, Colorado
Today’s National Wx Hazards
Freezing rain threatens an area from eastern Kansas to New England. A dangerous travel day in those areas, for sure! A narrow swath of heavy snow can be found just north of that freezing rain area. Meanwhile, another storm system brings mountain snows and valley rains to the Pacific Northwest.
Tomorrow’s National Wx Hazards
A wintry mess of freezing rain, sleet and snow can be found across New England. Not a good travel day there! More snow and rain mixed with snow can be found from northern Arkansas and Missouri and eastward to Pennsylvania. More snow is falling across the northern Rockies and parts of Montana and Wyoming.
Weather Shots
Oklahoma City is dealing with their second major winter storm of the winter of 2020-2021. The city is waking up to nearly half a foot of snow. The old record for January 1st snowfall was three inches set all the way back in 1895! Oklahoma City averages 2.8 inches of snow for January.
NASA Nerdology
During this week in 1985, the Voyager 2 spacecraft discovered a moon of Uranus which was later named Puck after the mischievous sprite in William Shakespeare’s “A Midsummer’s Night’s Dream.” Happy New Year from Earth, Puck! (ha)
