Great To Be Back from the Nation's Capital & I Brought Some Rain With Me!

Happy Birthday Mom! She is certainly the reason I do what I love every night on television. I used to read weather books around the house to her while she cleaned. What a Mom! Have a great crab cake dinner in Ponte Vedra Beach, Florida tonight and make sure to have lots of ice cream with your cake. You deserve the best! Come visit us soon in Indiana. It will be much cooler than Florida and you will not have to worry about hurricanes here.

Speaking of family, I just got back from the Washington, D.C. area where I also had the good fortune of having Maryland crab cakes. The company was even better. The girls and I were treated like royalty by my aunt Tina and uncle Kevin. I appreciate them letting my wild family stay at their house.



My daughters swam most of the time and took a brief break so they could take a picture with Dad and and all their cousins. You can also see BJ our new dog, who actually had control of the house while we were there. My aunt's Akita, Springer Spaniel, and Beagle were no match for his 4 pounds of spunk.

One of the highlights of my trip was taking the subway into Washington, D.C. like I did tons of times while I was growing up in the area.



Here is a picture of Capitol Hill which was a short walk from the Air and Space Museum. I could have spent a week there. The Air and Space Museum was full of interesting things ranging from moon rocks brought back by Neal Armstrong to the very uniform George Washington used to wear. I could have spent a whole week at just that one museum, but of course my kids needed ice cream and hot dogs so being there for an hour was quite a feat. The weather was great for walking around the Mall area with cloudy skies and temperatures in the lower to middle 70s. Usually it would be tough to walk more than a few steps without breaking into a sweat this time of year. But last week it was just perfect! The Washington Monument was a 555 foot marvel. It never gets old to me no matter how many times I have seen it in person.

The big reason I was visiting was to celebrate my 20 year high school reunion. I was very proud to go with my wife Julie and show all my old friends lots of pictures of my three daughters. Family is what it is all about and I am blessed many times over. When it came down to it the thing that really mattered to most people at my reunion was not their job, or what kind of car they drove, but their families. It was kind of funny how most of my friends, including me shared pictures of their loved ones on digital cameras. You have to love those memories and memory cards.

Before I left for vacation, I told my weatherwatchers and some farmers that I was not coming back without bringing some rain. Well, my rain dance or at least prayers worked. The maps before I left did show the blocking pattern breaking down with better rain chances and sure enough about a week later I woke up to downpours this morning. Tonight join me for the latest on some impressive rainfall totals. I will post these and talk about the effect it will have on our long-term drought prospects. Get ready for more good news. It is great to be back.