Happy Birthday SUPER MOM! It's Party Time Weatherwise and Otherwise!

There is my Mom with her Hoosier grandchildren this past Easter. Happy Birthday Mom! You may live about 1,000 miles away, but you are always with me in all that I do. I certainly would not do what I love everyday without you. Everybody knows about David Letterman's Mom, but you are much better! :)You are without a doubt the best Mom I could have ever asked for and here is my top ten list of why:

10) You taught me to always make my bed even if I thought it would snow and it was sunny outside. I made sure to always throw my junk under my bed so you would be happy with me.

9) You came to all my sporting events and made sure to tell the other team not to hurt me. But they were surprised when this Momma's boy turned into the Hulk when lacing up the shoes and playing hoops.

8) You taught me how to ride a bike and I still have the proof with a tiny scar on my left knee. I must of fallen a hundred times, but you made sure I kept getting back on that bike. This prepared me for later in life when I would miss a weather forecast.

7) You helped me put out a fire in my hair after getting too close to my birthday candles one year. I watch my kids closely on their birthdays since they are related to me.

6) You did homework night after night with me and helped me win an award for my 4th grade science project on condensation. That is the only time in my life I have been able to control the weather and it was with you.

5) You took me to the library and encouraged me to check out weather books and luckily you were strong enough to help me carry a trunkload of books home.

4) You sat with me every night at the dinner table and would even take walks with me afterwards. No matter what happened that day, after our walks I felt like I had the best day ever and I could not wait for tomorrow.

3) You put me through college and told me to never give up on my dreams even when my report card was more alarming than today's gas prices.

2) You taught me how to properly hammer, clean, and eat Maryland crabs! My wife would rather me have learned how to use a hammer and tools for other things, but nobody is perfect.

1) You were the world's first Super Mom! Where do you think the term came from? You were outstanding in all facets of your life, including your job. Most of all you made me and our entire family feel special every single day after you came home after a long day at work. Where did you find the energy? Well, I think it came from you having the world's biggest heart. Thank you Mom. I love you!

Yes, it is time to not only celebrate my wonderful Mom's birthday, but this outstanding weather here in Lafayette. This is what I call California weather. Today we had blue skies, a few weather clouds, and it was nice and comfortable. Check out how beautiful the moonrise was last night.

The red moonrise last night was due to a few cirrus clouds that blew off the top of huge thunderstorms in the Plains. This was all that was left of those thunderstorms....just an extra beautiful moonrise. It is about time our Spring weather cooperates. It was one for the books and here are a few reasons why it will always be one for the books.

1) We had rain or snow an amazing 51 out of 90 days. This comes out to about 4 out of every 7 days we were tracking storms on Live Doppler 18. No wonder we started giving names to all the storm's impacting our area here on the blog.

2) The Wabash River did have some moderate flooding, but we luckily escaped the worst of the flooding. Areas south of Indianapolis near Franklin had their worst flooding since 1913.

3) We had our latest snow since 1977. So you can say that April fool's day this year came to us on April 28th!

4) We had 7 tornadoes in our La Nina Spring which was about two year's worth of tornadoes in one season. Last Spring we only had one brief tornado in White County.

5) The area was hit with hurricane force winds on at least 3 occasions. Here were our top wind gusts:

Creasy Lane- 85 mph

Crawfordsville- 81 mph

Frankfort- 80 mph

Battle Ground- 75 mph

Even though we do not have hurricanes here in Indiana locals will tell you it felt like we have already had 3.

Now that summer is here a different pattern is upon us. Make sure to tune in tonight for the newscast and I will let you know why. In the meantime since we are having "out of this world" weather, here is a link to what the weather on Mars is doing. I think you will love it! Notice even Mars has had more sunshine than we have had this Spring in Indiana, but those temperatures are a little too cold even for me!

http://www.space.gc.ca/asc/eng/exploration/phoenix_weather1.asp

See you soon and check back tomorrow for the Taste of Tippecanoe forecast and when we may see our first summer heat wave.