Burst of Summer Today But Still No Heat Waves in Sight

We have only had one day of 90 degrees or above here in Lafayette. We should have had 7 times that many by now as you see on the graphic above. Casper, Wyoming has already had 6 days of 90 or above and here we sit at one. Portions of British Columbia, Sasketchewan, and Alberta have had more days reach the big 90. It is embarrassing for all the real summer weather lovers. But today we do have a shot of at least reaching 90 degrees for the first time since June 8th! Remember in July of 2006 we had 10 days of 90 or above and last year we had 3 days eclipse 90. This year it still looks like our downward spiral continues with a persistent trough in the Midwest and the big heat ridge continuing to stay out West and well to our South.

But for one day summer will shine. We have great bearded dragon and ice cream weather! Breana Blackburn sent this great picture of her pet in and Buddy loves the hot weather. Today should be a lizard delight but I think Buddy may complain a little about the relative humidity. He is used to it close to 10% and today it will be closer to 50%. But today you can certainly let the lizards out to play!

The transition into our lizard weather or some good old-fashioned summertime fun did not come without some excitement last night. We are still on the edge of cooler air and a vigorous jet stream to our north. Disturbances in the flow moved along the warm front well up into Wisconsin and then nose-dived our way in the west-northwest flow last night. The storm reports of damage luckily stayed to our North and West as you can see. The blue circles are wind damage, the yellow circles large hail, and the red circles tornadoes. We did have a couple of pea-size hail reports near Rensselaer and near Monticello. The good news is that some areas that have recently missed out on some rainfall got some free lawn-waterings. The areas in green show you who had a quarter to half inch of rain.

Some of the newer model data is showing more widespread heavy amounts of rain for all of us with an average of .50" to 1" of rain this weekend with locally higher amounts possible.
Now the big question is when because I know we all have those big plans. It still looks like Saturday will be the day and the Storm Prediction Center has already outlined us in a severe weather risk with possible watches and weather warnings. Tune in tonight to find out when these storms will hit and what they will bring. We will also talk about some relief from today's heat and humidity. I will see you soon and have a great day! Today instead of a weather blog song I have a funny video of a little guy that is shocked I am calling for NO RAIN ON FRIDAY AFTERNOON OR EVENING.



Now I am not guaranteeing this. I am too smart for that. But I do like our chances of a dry Friday afternoon and evening. This is actually a little like how I looked after going through the dozens of models and none of them showing rain over this afternoon. We have had rain on something crazy like 11 of the last 12 Fridays. Technically it already has rained on our Friday today since we had some rumbles of thunder just after midnight last night. This makes our streak now up to 12 out of the last 13 Fridays with rain! The good part is this has brought all of us weather bloggers closer together like a family just the way I like it! Today you will be able to blog away but get out and enjoy a real TGIF in its fullest. It will live up to its name.

Tonight is also a huge night at the Tippecanoe Ampitheater. You can go see the High School Musical at 8 p.m. It is also playing Saturday at 8 p.m. and once again next Friday and Saturday at 8 p.m. All my girls are going tonight and having a "girls night out". It will be an outstanding show and is a must-see for everybody of all ages. The High School Musical is starring TV-18's very own producer Lisa Stanforth as Sharpay. She has already gotten rave reviews and if you met her in person the funny part is she is the total opposite and one of the nicest people you would ever meet. Things also get interesting thanks to Weather Team 18's Steve Scherer as the basketball coach. This man not only can track tornadoes but can act up a storm! It is certainly one of many fun things you can do this weekend in Lafayette!