It's Time for Christmas in July & A Merry Good Weather Weekend

It is Christmas in July time and I am heading up to Wisconsin to celebrate. You have to love the Christmas lights above! It may not be a white christmas but I will look forward to lots of great food and company. My wife's family started this tradition because of the harsh (awesome snowy) winters they have up in Wisconsin. The relatives that were snowbound and did not get to see their family during the usual holiday season decided to move Christmas to July when travel was much easier. Also if some relatives were unable to visit due to other committments it was now much easier on them since they had Christmas in July. The funny but not so funny part is that Wisconsin is still vulnerable to tornadoes this time of year. But overall it is a great concept and it gives me an excuse to listen to Christmas music during the summer months. Looking at the latest maps there is no snow or tornadoes to worry about so let the party begin. Now speaking of a good time, the Kiss the Pig contest was awesome last night. Over 1,200 dollars was raised for the 4Her's. I will make sure to post some of those pictures here soon. In the meantime, I found some pictures to get you in the holiday mood below. You see pictures from the blizzard of 2007 below and scrapbook photos that won prizes! It is good to see that I am not the only one that loves snow!

Let it snow, let it snow, and let there be a good weekend is what everybody at the fair asked for last night and I must say we have the best viewers on earth. It was so nice talking to many of you out at the fair and it was good to see a lot of familiar faces including Justin New who I actually even put on TV with me at the end of my weather along with Willie the famous weather blog Chihuahua. Justin has a great family and the fair was full of just wonderful people and it really brings to light how it really helps "community build". It is a place where you meet the most interesting and amazing people and I was very happy to have been a part of it! Now one more good thing about Christmas in July is that you can cook burgers out on the grill. Try doing that in December. Well we have great grill-out weather this weekend and you can see why below.

A big high pressure that steered Dolly into south Texas is blocking all of our Gulf Moisture and even though we have a front coming through this weekend it will not have moisture to work with. So rememember we could have a few isolated showers and thunderstorms mainly late tonight and once again Saturday, but the activity should not hamper plans. The farther south you go, especially toward Indianapolis this weekend there will be a better chance of scattered storms. This will be closer to the ring of fire you see above on the weather map or the ring of thunderstorms that naturally form on the edge of big heat wave producing high pressures this time of year. But the key word is scattered on the rain even in Indianapolis. On race day nature will try to make it interesting with a possible complex of storms racing in here on a west to northwest flow. I still think Tony Stewart will have the upper hand with the best chance of rain holding off until late day and during the evening. But it is no guarantee. Make sure to tune in tonight for the updated forecast. For now you can see the forecast below. Remember the sunscreen!

Here in the Lafayette viewing area on Sunday rain chances should be so low that I left them out of the forecast, but that northwest flow can be tricky and I will take another look with you tonight on the newscasts! It is also good to see our Live Doppler 18 up and running again and the best news of all is that we have a big training day today so we can share weather with you like never before! I will see you soon and since Christmas in July is our theme today, here is a recipe I will pass on to share with you. Instead of reindeer cupcakes how does zucchini PIE sound? This is a Christmas treat you normally would not have in December!

ZUCCHINI PIE

Peel and cut zuchinni into chunks,remove seeds. Boil until tender. 2 cups uncooked zucchini=1 cup cooked.
1 cup cooked zucchini(drained)
1 cup milnot or condensed milk
1 t vanilla
1 1/2 T margarine
1 cup sugar
1 egg
1/4 t salt
2 T flour

Mix together and por into deep dish pie shell. Sprinkle cinnamon on top Bake at 400 degrees for ten minutes then 350 degrees for 30 minutes.

From Diana and Jerry Farrell of Lafayette

Of course I met these nice folks out at the fair! Thanks so much Diana and Jerry. Now a lot of folks were asking about snow this winter and what I thought about this year. Well it is still early but we may have a better chance of a White Christmas than normal. I will tell you more about this here on the blog today and of course on tonight's newscast.

Kiss the Pig Contest is Tonight & Dolly Continues to Hog the Weather Spotlight

Tonight is the big night at the Tippecanoe County Fair. It is the Kiss the Pig Contest and the Greased Watermelon Race taking place at the Coliseum. Remember to fill up Julie Krizen's TV-18 pig. All the proceeds go to the 4Her's and of course the one that raises the most money gets to kiss the pig. The best part is you can have a lot of fun and it goes to a good cause. It is great to hear that the money raised stays local. A big thanks goes out to Suzie Jero and the 4H coordinators that have made a difference in many lives including handing out 3 scholarships at 250 dollars each to Amber Bedwell, Matt De Golyer, and Dawn Cook. Congratulations! We have a lot of great and talented young people in our community and it is on display firsthand out at the fair. I still have my pig trophy from last year and display it with pride on my desk at home.

Now the big story today hogging all the attention is of course Hurricane Dolly that made landfall in Texas yesterday. The big impact it will have is flooding with 10 to 15 inches of rain. The fact that it made it up to a category 2 hurricane was impressive with wind speeds close to 100 mph before it quickly weakened after making landfall. Dolly is gulping up a ton of warm, moist, and tropical air from the Gulf of Mexico and it has a bearing on our weather. This storm may be bad news for Texas and Mexico but it is good news for us if you like unusually dry and cool air here at home. Dolly is intercepting the normally uncomfortable, sultry air mass that likes to pop thunderstorms this time of year here at home and that so often play havoc with those important plans. So instead of those 75 mph wind gusts like we saw at the fair in 2005 with severe thunderstorms we have been very lucky this year. Folks out at the fair are still talking about how tents went flying that day as Lafayette had its own little taste of hurricane force winds. Others remember 1999 for its heat. We had a heat index that averaged over 100 during the course of the entire week. But not this year! You can thank Dolly and those nice and comfortable northerly breezes.

Tropical systems in the Gulf of Mexico usually do have an impact on our weather here at home, not for the positive but the negative. Hurricanes hit and weaken over land to our south, but the remnants have been known to ruin many a weekends here in Lafayette. Notice Dennis and Rita in 2005 moved up and around the high pressure in the Atlantic Ocean. This steered heavy rains and breezy conditions all the way northward into Indiana even though they made landfall about a thousand miles away. The good news is that Dolly's track moved much farther west around a high pressure over Texas and as a result all of its moisture is being pushed into the mountains of Mexico where it will die out. Instead of the remnants energizing our cold front moving our way this weekend it will help starve it of moisture keeping our weekend forecast mainly dry. So don't cancel those plans! There is the big 5K run in Frankfort going on at the Hot Dog fest and it looks like there will be some good running weather like we saw this past weekend in Lafayette. You will see a few clouds like the picture below, but it will be more bark than bite!

I wanted to make sure to take this time and thank everybody once again for making the Zoo Run Run at Columbian Park this weekend a big success. We set a record with 429 runners. You see our News Channel 18 folks that finished the 3.11 miles. From left to right you have Brent (Nicole's husband), Nathan Caldwell (videographer), Laura Kirtley (our weekend anchor and reporter), Nicole Caan (our new main anchor), and Ted Hovermale (sales guy extraordinaire)! They all had a blast and that is what matters most. Great job! Over 4,000 dollars was raised for new zoo exhibits at Columbian Park. The Friends of Columbian Park Zoo thank you very much! Join me tonight once again from the Fair and I will get you ready for the big night. I can tell you the rib-eye sandwhiches hit the spot yesterday and it was nice walking around with my wife on our date. Oh don't forget to check out the cheesecake on a stick which is dipped in chocolate.

Cotton Candy Clouds & Great Fair Weather Today!

North winds in July? This is the total opposite of what we normally see this time of year and is the big reason we will not have any heat or humidity to worry about today! Missy Marquess sent in those awesome pictures of the wind mills near Earl Park. Since our weather story is all about refreshing breezes this really works and it is good to see us producing new energy resources here at home. This picture above is a sign of hope that the days of being at the mercy of gas prices are coming to an end. It may take awhile, but you have to start somewhere. The ship is now sailing in the right direction. There are many good ideas out there and I think we should use as many new energy resources as possible until we get it right. It is something we can control and we do have the people and technology to get it done. Nature is a different story. We will always be at its mercy. Notice the incredible pictures below sent in by Mary Sheiko near Beck Lane and 9th Street!

A lot of folks were talking about lightning strikes down in Indianapolis but we had our own issues here at home. You are looking at a tree that exploded and was also stripped of its bark. We also had reports of at least 2 lightning strikes in Clinton County striking powerlines a telephone pole. This caused plenty of power outages. At one point there were 20,000 lightning bolts across Illinois and Indiana on Monday night which is the highest total I have seen in a long time. This picture sent in really shows nature's fury!

Attached is a photo I took late Monday night (7/21/08) on the east side of Lafayette. The building in the foreground is the new Clarian Arnett Hospital with the lighting in the distance. -Dennis Strohmeyer

We did not have any weather warnings, but the lightning was so vivid and prolific it would have warrented at least a lightning warning. Like the wind mills hopefully this is in the future of weather warnings. A lot of folks were caught off-guard and it would have certainly kept people from going out on their porches to watch the storms. Remember all storms are dangerous even when there are no warnings. When the thunder roars head indoors, you are in danger of being struck by lightning.



Today those cumulonimbus clouds that brought that incredible light show have been replace by fair weather cumulus or "cotton candy" clouds. This means today we can stay outdoors when the ferris wheel roars and do not forget all the good food! I am live at the fair tonight and we will show some horses, swine, and have a few surprises for you. Don't worry I have also been busy working on your weekend forecast and if anything it looks even better! Tune in to find out why and I will blog with you this evening and update everything, including the latest on Dolly. Do you remember the crazy fair weather back in 2005? We will have more on this here on the blog tomorrow.

More Fair Week Thunderstorms Rattle the Area

Pat Jarboe sent in this picture of the goat show. It is the one week out of the year when your meteorologist can go from hero to goat in less than 5 minutes. Although the good news is the worst of the weather did miss us and hold off until after folks had already left the fairgrounds for the night. Mark Kirby, our Tippecanoe Emergency Management Agency director did a good job of making sure to send those storm spotters out just in case the storms came a little earlier. We kept in touch throughout the evening and the timing worked out perfectly for everybody involved. We were both relieved that those 60 mph wind gusts missed the Tippecanoe Fair grounds by a good 40 miles to the south.

1:18 a.m. Time to get some rest as all of our severe thunderstorm watches in our viewing area will be canceled!

Alright, I just confirmed this with the National Weather Service at Indianapolis. The worst is over and no severe weather is expected. Our best chance of severe weather was with that cell that just missed Montgomery County. It will be a long night down in Indianapolis, but here in Lafayette we should be able to salvage a little bit of shut eye! There are a few isolated storms up near Chicago and more popping out in Iowa but the atmosphere has stabilized and I do not expect any more weather watches. We could see one more round of showers on Tuesday about midday, but we should dry out for the evening and we have one of our nicest fair weather forecasts on record coming your way! Make sure to watch Kelly this morning for the latest and I will check back with you later this evening. Thanks for blogging. You all are just GREAT! Have a good night.

1:05 a.m. The worst is over as warning just misses Montgomery County

It was a close call but that one dangerous cell has moved just south of Montgomery County and a severe thunderstorm warning is in effect for Putnam County. I am still concerned about some localized rainfall amounts of 2 to 3 inches before the rain tapers off around 3 a.m. Please be careful out there if you are driving. It is tough to see flooded out roadways.

12:51 a.m. Lightning is finally showing signs of letting up for most of us! One more strong thunderstorm cell is moving toward southern Montgomery County.

We have one more vivid lightning producing cell than may nip extreme southern Montgomery County. This storm could still put out a brief warning for damaging isolated wind gusts of 60 mph and large hail. So right now if you are south of Crawfordsville in Montgomery County batten down the hatches. The worst part of that cell will be just south of you, but better safe than sorry. We are not out of the woods yet. I will check back!


12:20 a.m. Update: Lightning Strikes Telephone Pole on North Side of Frankfort (Power Outages)

We may not have any warnings but we still have some vicious lightning and I just got a call from Chris in Frankfort and he has confirmed some small pea size hail. More importantly he told me of an incredible lightning strike with a huge blue flash as it hit a telephone pole. Some folks apparently were out on their porches when this happened. Thank goodness they are all now inside and safe. I am glad lightning did not strike anybody. Small pea size hail was also reported. This activity will be exiting Clinton County by 1 a.m. Another target area of concern is Montgomery County between now and 1 a.m. for vivid lightning, small hail, and wind gusts of 45 mph.

I just called home and the dog and my wife are wide awake with the loud crashes of thunder around the area. It is a good thing my kids are sleeping soundly in Wisconsin at Grandma's and Aunt Shelli's house. My daughter Abbey would certainly be awake and on my case! Our bed would certainly be full of kids and our dog! I think the worst of these thunderstorm's bite will be between now and 1 a.m. Then the worst should be over. I will be here at work until I can give the all clear. So for now the big thing I want to pass along is that I think we will be okay tonight as long as you do not go out on your porch. Also remember if you have to be traveling or driving around the area over the next couple of hours a quick one to two inches of rain has fallen in spots with another inch of rain possible. Be careful of lowland flooding and ponding of water on the roadways.


12:14 a.m. Update:

THUNDERSTORMS WITH WIND GUSTS OF 45 MPH AND SMALL HAIL ARE POSSIBLE IN SOUTHERN CLINTON COUNTY. ANOTHER STRONG THUNDERSTORM CELL IS NEAR VEEDERSBURG AND WILL BE NEAR CRAWFORDSVILLE BY 12:45 A.M. THE MAIN THREATS WILL BE VIVID LIGHTNING, SMALL HAIL, AND WIND GUSTS TO 45 MPH.


12:00 A.M.
A WEATHER TEAM 18 ALERT: THE NATIONAL WEATHER SERVICE IN INDIANAPOLIS HAS ISSUED A SEVERE THUNDERSTORM WATCH IN EFFECT UNTIL 4 A.M. FOR BENTON, WARREN, FOUNTAIN, TIPPECANOE, MONTGOMERY, CARROLL, CLINTON, AND HOWARD COUNTIES. THUNDERSTORMS WITH WIND GUSTS OF 45 MPH AND SMALL HAIL ARE POSSIBLE IN SOUTHERN TIPPECANOE COUNTY. THESE STORMS ARE MOVING TOWARD FRANKFORT. ANOTHER STRONG THUNDERSTORM CELL IS EXPECTED IN FOUNTAIN AND MONTGOMERY COUNTIES.

A Stormy Start to Fair Week As 60 mph Gusts Barrel Through the Area

You see the popular orange and lemon shake-ups at the fair. Nature gave us its own version of shaking things up. Luckily for us the worst of the wind missed the Tippecanoe County Fairgrounds. But the fairs going on up in White County and Jasper County were not so lucky.

It was quite a start to fair week here and it lived up to its stormy reputation. Wind gusts up to 60 mph hit the area with reports of tree limbs and trees down from near Morocco to Medaryville, Royal Center, and near Nead in Miami County. Wind speeds were closer to 40 mph here in Tippecanoe County at the Fairgrounds. Now the next big question is if we will have any more severe weather. Well, we are still in a slight risk through this evening. While our atmosphere has stabilized quite a bit the sunshine is popping back out and this could spark a few more thunderstorms. I think the biggest threats will once again be lightning, brief heavy downpours, and isolated damaging wind gusts. Our weather team will keep you updated on this and the good news is that any more severe weather that does pop should be much more isolated than we saw this morning.

Also, thanks for your patience on Live Doppler 18. As you know we have done a complete overhaul on it and in this transition we have run into a few problems matching the base maps and the radar echoes up. This problem will be resolved ASAP and we are working on it as I type this. The good news is we have not one but two back-up systems to keep you and your families safe which includes Precision 18. Have a great evening and thanks for all those that came out to the Zoo Run Run this weekend and it was also great meeting a lot of folks out at the High School Musical. The play certainly lived up to all the hype! Speaking of good news you will want to tune in tonight for the latest on when real relief arrives in your forecast! Nature's free air conditioning is on the way!

Its Time for the Zoo Run Run & Live Doppler 18 Fun Fun

Today is a big day. We have installation of our new Live Doppler 18 basemaps. This will allow us to zoom into every street corner and with the touch of the mouse highlight roads impacted by severe weather! We also have some incredible resolution views of areas like Ross-Ade Stadium and the Tippecanoe County fairgrounds. It certainly is our biggest day for our Live Doppler 18 since we got it in 2000. Hopefully tonight I can show off a little of what it can do to give you an exciting glimpse into the future. We will certainly need it by the second part of the weekend.



This weekend is also huge with Dancing in the Streets and the ZOO RUN RUN! It is hard to believe I helped to start the Zoo Run Run 5K family fun run and walk 6 years ago. It was an exciting idea brought up at our Zoo Board meeting and we made our dream a reality! This year we are expecting our biggest turnout ever and it includes a new and improved race route. It is a course that is much more walker and runner friendly with plenty of straightaways and most importantly it is 3.11 miles. It is Mike Prangley designed, tested, and approved. I have run it at least 6 times! If you are not in the mood to run, don't worry there will be plenty of walkers. It is more about families getting out there and having fun! But if you are a serious runner, it is an official course and it will be a great route. The T-Shirts look great and the free breakfast afterwards thanks to Bison food is one of a kind. You will also get free pool passes and the kids will be able to interact with the animals. I look forward to seeing you out there on Saturday morning at 8:30 a.m. at the race start. I put the little ad in above to help get fired up. Notice the goats out-ran me! They were actually running back to Mommy in the Arnett Clinic Petting Zoo.

Come join us for Lafayette's biggest 5K summer race! All proceeds go to the Columbian Park Zoo to help bring in new animals and exhibits and of course for the wonderful educational and outreach programs for kids. The talk of bringing penguins to the zoo are true. If you haven't been there in awhile you would be proud of how much it has grown and you need to meet Benny, the Zoo's new Wallaby. After the race you can go swimming and then come back to the Zoo and celebrate its 100 year anniversary. Columbian Park Zoo director Claudine Laufmann will have plenty of great activities for you and your family.

Other stories I am working on for today and tonight here on the blog and on the tube!

James Britton shows us the great shot of the moon off 350 South last night. It still had a yellow tinge to it even 2 hours after moonrise. It was an unusual tangerine color when it rose at 8:11 p.m. What do you think is causing this? Your hint is below!



The cicadas are singing and their song may be some good news for those that like colder weather. You can thank Diana Marion from Monticello for sending this picture in to try to keep everybody cool! Keep those cool thoughts! It will feel like close to 100 today with the humidity in the shade! OUCH.

Thunderstorms will erupt in our area for the first time in about a week this weekend after our 2ND DRY FRIDAY IN THE LAST 14 WEEKS! WOW! I am still not guaranteeing this....We have about a 5% chance of a pop up storm today. :)


Developing...

Our Blue Skies Turn Gray & The Birds Take Over Live Doppler 18

It is great to check in with you on this Thursday. Last night a lot of folks commented on how beautiful and bright the full moon is. You can see how it looked over the beautiful Tippecanoe County Courthouse. It is hard to believe that Mark Twain was here for its opening ceremony back in the 19th century. It is such a historic and beautiful venue and the moon added to this nostalgic scene. Better yet, the full moon is not full until tonight. Moorise is officially at 8:11 p.m. Get some pictures so we can share them here on the blog. The other striking feature in the sky last night was how red the moon was during our moonrise. This time of year the haze particles really build up. They are made of water particles, dust, smoke, and other pollutants. The reason our blue skies turn gray is exactly because of these particles scattering light in the atmosphere. They are actually larger than the dominant air molecules of nitrogen and oxygen so this is the reason it happens. What causes the build-up of these particles. Look no further than the graphic below.




You need a high pressure system in place which causes sinking air. It also traps the particulates and allows them to grow larger. It can also cause Air Quality alerts like we have seen this week. These stable air masses created by high pressures really allows us to dry out. We have certainly seen that this week with our driest week since late October and early November. It is our driest week of the year! Richard Beedle has taken this opportunity in a nice tranquil weather pattern to take his boat out on the Wabash River. Not only did he enjoy the beautiful blue skies but he captured a picture of these beautiful cedar waxwing birds. I have never seen these birds before but apparently they do make their homes in Indiana.

Speaking of birds, do you realize we have picked up signatures of birds on our Live Doppler 18 this week. Things are always exciting here in Indiana even in quiet weather patterns. Now I did not capture what they looked like on our Doppler but did find a picture for you from the Chicago National Weather Service you see below.

The circled area shows you where the birds are located. Remember doppler radar can pick up not just raindrops but wind currents, objects like trees and buildings, birds, and even insects. The doppler radar scans the skies and picks up the birds because they are made of mostly water like humans and the radar beam is reflected off them just like it would when it hits oversized raindrops and it comes back to our Live Doppler 18 as a circle. The farther away they fly from their nesting ground the less intense the bird radar ring becomes. In the Autumn and Spring these birds play havoc with meteorologists because our wind estimates from doppler radar sometimes factor in the forward speed of birds that it picks up. The problem is many times it is hard to tell if the birds were factored in and it throws off all of our wind speeds and forecasts. This is just another reason why being a meteorologist is humbling.

Speaking of humbling, I have signed up for my 6th marathon. I will be running my 26.2 miles at the Walt Disney World Marathon. I will be earning the Mickey medal. I like challenges and I am sure that Florida heat and humidity will be waiting for me even in January. I will never forget living in Florida and waiting in line for ice cream to try to cool down in the middle of the winter. The good news is the race starts at 6 a.m. which means I will be running in much more runner friendly temperatures. If you are into running make sure to come on out this weekend to the Zoo Run Run at Columbian Park. It starts at 8:30 a.m. I will have much more on this here on the blog tomorrow, including when the heat will break!

Last but not least I am ecstatic to have joined SUNNY 107.7 FM or WMRS radio in Monticello to Delphi and Lafayette! It will be the perfect complement to my television weathercasts and webcasts. Make sure to listen for frequent weather updates on the radio from yours truly. WMRS also broadcasts our news on a daily basis. I cannot thank WMRS enough for this opportunity. We will expand the weather coverage of course during big or severe weather events. So if you lose power during storms tuning to WMRS is another great way to get the latest weather information to keep you and your family safe! One of these days I will have to do a weather watcher and blogger type radio weather show. With all the great weather bloggers on here the show would take off immediately! I am sure Mary Anne, Justing, and Teri would be big hits! Have a great day and thanks for all your support.