One of the biggest and best parts of my job is going to visit school, rotary clubs, and assisted living homes. Yesterday I met some of the nicest folks you will ever meet at Green Tree! They put their order in for a nice homecoming weekend and I had no choice but to oblige. A special assist goes to nature for helping to kick out a loopy low by Saturday afternoon which will help us dry out for all those plans. It is amazing that this is the same storm that brought Lafayette nearly an inch of rain earlier in the week. Take a look at this track. Usually you only see this type of track from hurricanes or tropical storms. This low pressure will drift over us tonight, but will be finally kicked out of here by a cold front on Saturday morning, helping to dry us out Saturday afternoon and Sunday!
The ladies told me they watch WLFI TV-18 during severe weather because we are the only station that focuses on where they live and lets you know what will be happening instead of what already happened. This did make my day, but I also told them that they have not seen anything yet. There are plans to show weather like its never been seen before here in Lafayette. It certainly will be a happy new year as we all bring in 2008. But will this winter be like? That was the big question. I told them I still think we will not have to worry about bitter cold weather, but watch out for possible severe thunderstorms, heavy snow, heavy rain, and a major ice storm risk. Our weather is matching up right now with the volatile 1930s through the 1960s. Those years had many hot summers and plenty of snowy and stormy winters. Speaking of snow, I have been tracking snow in Alaska this week. A couple weeks ago I showed you Barrow, Alaska that was bare and had no snowcover. Now it is full of snow. Take a look at the Barrow Sea Ice Cam!
Northern Hemispheric snow cover in the important higher latitude area I track is now up to 8 percent and growing. This compares to a snow cover of about 12 percent this time last year. The more snow cover you have in October the more bitter air masses that tend to build as you head through the winter. So I think I am on track with the temperature forecast being much warmer this winter. But as I told the Green Tree ladies you do not want to get too excited. I still think we could get pounded with plenty of classic winter storms that your grandparents used to tell you about. I think we could see our first snowflakes of the season between November 6th and 11th which is about average for our area.
This weekend we have a big one! Everybody is coming to town for homecoming and the fall foliage is peaking. Here is the latest map just for you! I do think if you are heading to Brown County that the best viewing will be both this weekend and next weekend. We are running a good two weeks behind last year. There will be many campers and it looks like they will be in for a treat. But make sure to bundle up and take some extra blankets. Once our loopy low moves east of our area, a Polar high pressure will take over the second part of the weekend bringing chilly weather and likely our first widespread frost of the season by Sunday morning. By Monday morning I cannot rule out lows in the upper 20s with a frost and freeze. This will help allergy sufferers and help rid us of those mosquitoes! It will be our second latest freeze on record since 1955. Remember in 2005 we had our latest freeze in the last 50 years on October 29th. Here are more stats for you!
Better late than never for some real autumn weather. We are running about 3 weeks behind schedule and then some on the first freeze. No wonder our leaves will be peaking into the first week of November.
The leaves will not be the only great sight this weekend. The space shuttle will be flying over Lafayette again and I will make sure to post those times for you by later today. HAVE A GREAT WEEKEND AND HAPPY FALL BREAK TO ALL THE KIDS. I better go chase after mine!
1 comment:
When is our first snow? :)
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