Wednesday, October 27, 2010 11 a.m.
Just when you thought it could not get hotter, today's forecast high is 90 degrees. If you add in the humidity it will feel like 100 in the shade by later today. The good news is I have some nice snowy pictures to share with you from Duluth, Minnesota. In Duluth it is currently 32 degrees with a wind chill in the upper teens. This is a nice autumn day for the hearty Minnesotans. Many are enjoying this early taste of winter as you can see. A big thanks to Stephanie Puffer and family. There is nothing like your first snow and much of Duluth had close to 4 inches of the white gold as they call it. I love the pumpkin head snowman and her boys apparently like eating snow like I used to back in my sledding days in Maryland. I feel much cooler already!!
Now if you are Donna Deegan that absolutely loves this weather you can look forward to two more days of record-breaking weather. Instead of doing snow angels in the snow...you can always have fun doing them at the beach in the sand. Try it...it can be fun!! LOL Jacksonville hit 88 on Monday which broke the old record of 87 set back in 1949. On Tuesday we hit 89 which broke the old record of 87 set back in 1997. Today's 90 will smash the old record of 88 set back in 1939. What is interesting is our average last 90 degree day is the last day of September! So even by Florida standards this is some impressive heat. Thursday looks to be our last day having temperatures at mid-August levels. Expect highs of 89, which will belittle the old record of 87 set back in 2002.
What is the cause of our 4 day jaunt into record-record land. Well it is a never-ending summer at this point because we have a storm that is taking up a good chunk of Canada and the U.S. You see the impressive visible satellite picture taken above. It has clouds extending from the Arctic Circle to the Gulf of Mexico. Last night I called it the Monstrous Pre-Halloween Storm..well that does not give it enough credit. This behemoth spans 3,000 miles north to south and is 2,000 miles wide. It will go down in the record books as one of the strongest non-tropical storms to ever impact North America. It racked up over 300 storm reports including 287 reports of damaging wind gusts and 24 tornadoes. This storm's circulation is so large that it has helped whip up this hot weather for us and the good news is this storm will also usher in fine fall weather just in time for the weekend. Basically it started controlling our weather on Monday and will continue to be our main weather maker until early next week! Pretty amazing! Minnesota set a new record for lowest pressure ever. The storm literally bombed out and its pressure dropped from 983 mb to 955 mb in just over 24 hours when it crossed from the Dakotas into Minnesota. This compares to the pressure of 956 mb that Hurricane Karl had when it crossed the Yucatan back in September. Karl had 105 mph sustained wind speeds. While this inland hurricane did not have wind speeds that high it did produce some brief 81 mph gusts over Ohio, which is amazing for a non-tropical system. Also, some of the Indiana tornadoes it produced had wind speeds easily over 120 mph.
The next big question is whether this monstrous pre-Halloween storm going to bring us any severe weather like we have seen across the country? Some scary clouds, but kind of beautiful clouds formed on Monday night ahead of a rain shower in St.Johns County. Based on the latest 3D look at the atmosphere I really am leaning against any weather watches or warnings. Any severe weather which can never be totally counted out looks to be isolated. The atmosphere may be able to support 40 to 50 mph wind gusts, but the wind direction at all levels of the atmosphere are moving in from the same direction and with the main front not coming through until the middle of the night this will also make for a more stable atmosphere. But sure we can get a rumble of thunder to go with some of our rain showers without a doubt...you just will not have to worry about a severe weather outbreak...THE BIGGER QUESTION...HOW MUCH RAIN?? I think I just shouted .....well at least at myself, not you...I can be hard on myself and even though I do not control the weather, I know how important it is for us to get some rain in our drought ravaged area.
On Monday evening a few lucky folks a quick .25" of rain as you can see on the doppler estimates, but many including the Jacksonville airport were totally missed. Notice how there was a nice big 2 to 4 inches of rain for the fish, helped by the more unstable gulf stream. Jacksonville has not had a drop of rain in October! The record driest October was back in 1909 when we only had .08" of rain. Will we get the needed rain many of us have been praying for since late September or break another record? Tune in tonight for the latest and I will post the latest exclusive First Coast Futurecast on just how much rain is on the way. I will give you a few tidbits since you have taken some of your generous time to check this blog. The top 3 models right now that I am looking at while forecasting tomorrow and tomorrown night's rainfall.....MODEL #1 .07" MODEL #2 .10" MODEL #3 .45" ....Will model 3 win out? Tune in tonight at 5, 5:30, 6, 7 and 11 p.m.
Also and last but not least, if you have an I-Phone or Droid or a contraption that can add apps make sure to add our First Coast News Weather app....Check out a nice sample from Monday night's rain showers...IT HAS STREET LEVEL MAPPING THAT WORKS...yes I got in my car to make sure....I better stop shouting...anyway,just type in FCN Weather or First Coast Weather and best of all it is free and we are only one of five TV stations in the entire country that actually does its own 10 day forecast...yes I better go work on that....LOL...Thanks for your time and yes make it a great day weatherwise and otherwise! Remember not to be shy..I need to hear from you. Send in some weather, Halloween, football pictures to mprangley@firstcoastnews.com. Thanks. Talk to you soon with a special rain update post tonight before your late night snack!!
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