Hazy Dog Days of November Not Done With Us Just Yet!

Yes, the dog days usually run from July 3rd through August 11th and they are named after the dog star you find in the sky before sunrise during the summer months. Most of us think of those hot and sultry days when we hear the term "dog days". The dog days get their nickname from a usually quiet time of year with very few frontal passages in the Midwest. This allows haze, heat, and humidity to really build up in the atmosphere. Now even though it is November we have had plenty of warm weather, haze, and even some humidity starting to increase across the land of the Wabash. This is nature's autumn version of the "dog days". It is hard to believe that is has nearly been two weeks since Storm Stepanie hit the area with a good drenching of rain. But not if you looked at the sky yesterday. You can tell we had reduced visibilities due to haze in the picture above. Check out the not so clear Purdue Bell Tower on the far left and the American flag flying proudly on election day. We had a high of 73 in Lafayette so we did in fact have our warmest Presidential election day since 1964 as forecasted. Great job to everybody that got out and voted! We were all winners because we played an active part in making our democracy once again a shining example for people all over the world.

Last night we had a scintillating sunset thanks to that haze causing the sunlight to go through more of the atmosphere before reaching our eyes allowing us to enjoy a brilliant and colorful display. Since we have not had any big storm systems since October 24th the dust particles from the farmers tilling the fields, pollutants, and even microscopic water droplets have really built up. We have been tracking more bugs than raindrops as you can see above. So our new Hoosier weather proverb is that red skies and bugs at night will bring a sailor's and a Hoosier delight and that is exactly what we have on our Wednesday. I will be back to tell you which records we did set today and the latest on a raging blizzard that is expected to break out on the Plains and how it will impact our weather! We are also watching for possible strong storms and isolated damaging wind gusts tomorrow in portions of Indiana and Illinois. One thing is for sure and that is change is on the way. Look at those huge 24 hour temperature falls out west. The BIG SHOE is about to drop.

I will have your weather timeline that will be changing all of our lives in a big way and much more coming up here on the blog including some more reports of morel mushrooms popping up in this Spring weather across the area.

A couple more notes: The Golden Snow Shovel contest is about to start. Our web-master Gordon tells me hopefully tomorrow! More details on the way...Also, we will name this next weather-maker bringing us plenty of wind and rain tomorrow evening. How about Fitzgerald? Since we are coming up on the anniversary of the sinking of the Edmund Fitzgerald due to a huge wind storm on Lake Superior. Let me know what you think. Now I need to really buckle down and get to work on the models and maps. Have a great evening. Oh yes, and thank you Dusty for making our body bump class do extra crunches between all of our exercises. That is ouch....I mean okay! This will help me out come January when I run by the Disney castle.