Thursday, May 15, 2008

Weird Weather Continues from Lafayette to Iraq


Thanks for all those nice birthday wishes yesterday! I can tell you the best part of my birthday was spending time talking to my friends and family all over the country. This time it was good not to talk about tornadoes or blizzards hitting home, but about something much bigger. It was more about how big of an influence my family and friends have had on me in my 39 years. I have been able to live my dream every day and it would not have been possible without all the support from my family and friends. I would like to say a special thank you to my wife Julie who not only made my birthday special, but makes every day special. She is the one that deserves the biggest piece of my cake! It was also good to hear from a friend in Iraq once again. You see Jason above caught in yet another Iraqi sand storm. I wish we could donate some of our rain to him and our troops. We have had only 4 dry days so far in May and we have rain the forecast for the next 5 days. I will have more on the weather in Iraq.

My favorite gift had to be the GPS my Mom and Dad sent me. I am like a little kid with that thing. Of course I love maps to begin with, but the GPS is quite impressive. Now the question is can I invent a GPS that will tell you not to just turn right in 2 miles, but if it will be raining on your route in the next 5 minutes. If there is severe weather of course I would RE-DIRECT you. Would you want my voice or the much more sophisticated ladies voice I have in my car? I think I know the answer. :) This may be an idea for the future, but how about our weather right now! It has been strange. If we had a weather GPS it would probably be very confused send us into the middle of a field in the middle of nowhere.


We once again missed out on severe weather yesterday and it felt more like autumn than Spring even before the cold front moved through the area. So at least this cooler pattern has kept us from seeing our typical severe thunderstorms. This pattern is being caused by a summer-like ridge out West bringing record heat and 100 degree weather. Nature then tries to balance things out by bringing much cooler and wetter weather into the Midwest. You can see the big dip in the jet stream above. It looks like this pattern will hold through at least early next week, but things will get back to a more typical Spring pattern by the middle of next week. We may have more than a few warm days in a row. Once we heat up we would then watch for those stronger thunderstorms. Right now it looks like our severe weather season will be late this year. It looks like an active June and July, before we dry out a bit and turn much hotter in August.


This almost surreal pattern here in North America is all related to a highly amplified pattern around the world, including Japan and portions of Asia. This in turn causes unusual weather to impact the Middle East. Everything in the weather world is in fact connected in what I call the domino effect. Iraq is having more of a summer pattern even though it is only May with sweltering temperatures in the 100s by this weekend and lows in the 80s. Their dry season has arrived about 4 weeks early. Here are vivid pictures and an e-mail from Pamela and Jason detailing the wild weather.




Hi Mike!

Jason, my oldest son, sent me some pics of a sand storm that they had in Iraq a few weeks ago. We, here at home, have been complaining about too much rain, but I will take rain over a sand storm! If it were that dry here, the Midwest would be in a severe drought with dead crops, and no hope of planting again anytime soon. Just wanted to share with you.

Pamela
South of Rossville

"Hey everybody,
Here are some pics from a storm we had a couple weeks ago. Pictures were taken at noon.
Jason"



Jason it is great to hear from you. Make sure to tell the troops all our thoughts and prayers are with them and if we could we would send you rain in a hearbeat. I am humbled that you and our brave soldiers check this blog out from time to time and I will look into doing more weather updates for you on here in the future! Thanks for the great pictures and it makes our white-out conditions we have in snowstorms on Interstate 65 seem like a walk in the park. You can blame this pattern on the Shamal wind that usually does not move into Iraq until mid-June. At least the breeze will have a bit of a cooling effect. I do not see the Shamal lasting into Memorial Day weekend and once this dry northwesterly breeze lets up, it should allow you to not only cool down, but to at least squeeze out enough rain to settle the dust down. The global circulations are anything but stagnant as we head into June even in a desert region where your located you should at least see some variety in the weather over the next few weeks before your real hot, dry pattern settles in by late June. Until then be careful!


Back closer to home we have some visibility issues of our own this morning due to patchy fog. Nothing like you see in the picture above, but just allow a little extra time. I will check back with you soon and have your weekend forecast. I still would not cancel plans despite the rain chances continuing through early next week. I will have more on the air tonight and check back with you on the blog soon. Have a great day!

10 comments:

Anonymous said...

Hey Mike!

A belated HAPPY BIRTHDAY to you! Glad you got the GPS system. We have a Tom-Tom and love it!

I am enjoying this cool wx but I know some would throw rotten tomatoes at me for saying this :-)

I am sure they will get their hot wx sometime before winter and I will be miserable. I feel GOOD when it is like this. No heat and no A/C. Perfect wx, LOL!!

Mary Anne in Remington

Anonymous said...

I think tonight we will have chili for dinner instead of burgers on the grill, Oh well Just hope its nice for Race Day, I remember few years back, the weather was awful I saw two tornados touch down, wish not to see that again.

Anonymous said...

Are you sure that we will get less than 0.25" of rain tonight? Looks like it will get heavier later on.

Anonymous said...

Watch you everynight....You normally do a pretty good job with your predictions...

You're not going to be close on your rain amounts tonight though....

What happened....

Anonymous said...

I see you updated the rain totals, but we live near SR 26 in Tippecanoe County and we are up to 0.62 inches at 8:30pm, with heavier rain coming.

Anonymous said...

Happy Belated Birthday

I am amazed that your web page does not have the flood warnings posted for the Wabash River - the National Weather Service has it cresting at 13.2 ft (flood stage in Lafayette is 11 ft) - but with more perciptation that originally predicted - makes me wonder about the flood levels.

Thanks for the interesting information on your blog - I always walk away learning something new. Oh - and PLEASE keep us posted on the Wabash River - this rain is scaring me.

River Lover
West Lafayette

Anonymous said...

I see that you changed the forecast again, remvoing the "0.25 inch" total. Glad to see that you read what we write on the blog!! I hope we have a beautiful weekend after all this rain! Everyone have a great night, stay dry.

Anonymous said...

To River Lover, I just read that low land flooding is now occuring in Lafayette along N.9th Street. The river is expected to reach 14 feet by tomorrow. Sorry for the bad news, keep safe!

Anonymous said...

nice forecast.... you weren't close....

Anonymous said...

Accu Weather had us just above the .50 range. Saying that most of the rain would remain south of our area. Its been said over an over again, mother nature does what she wants, however we didnt need the radars toningh to tell us where heavy rain is occuring, or how much was expected, all one had to do is walk outside better than that drive down US52!