Faye Heading Farther West Means Heavier Rain for Us

The green and purple lines you see on the map are closer to where I think Fay is moving. The NAVY NOGAPS AND BAMM models I think are doing the best job at this point. This would bring Indiana heavier rain by late week. The track will mean the difference between seeing 1 to 3 inches of rain or just a few sprinkles. Some models are even showing Fay stalling out over the southeast which would effectively help end their drought. Stay tuned and I will have more coming up for you on Monday. I have already been on the phone with relatives in Florida talking about a farther west track. Our cool high of 82 today is the first sign of this. The cooler it stays this week the heavier the rain. I will explain more here on the blog and make sure to tune in tonight at 11 p.m. Brian Wolfe will have the latest. We have been working on this all evening. Now I had better get home. Have a great evening.

Tornado Dog Gets a Nice Rest With Our Finest Friday in 4 Months!

Good Morning! What a great way to start off the day. I am getting used to the new back to school schedule like all the other parents. The kids have adjusted wonderfully. I am still getting there. It takes us older people a little longer I guess. I was a little groggy this morning but after walking outside the weather really has me pumped up for my morning run! I am thinking 8 miles today.

We are going to have our nicest Friday weather in 4 months! We will never forget how we had severe weather and rain for like 100 straight Fridays! Well it wasn't that many but at one point we had rain on 12 out of our last 14 Fridays. There will be no Freaky Friday this time around and the big news is that we have Friday Night Frenzy tonight on WLFI for the first time since last March tonight! We have great "football weather" for all the scrimmages. In other words it will once again feel like autumn out there and instead of nature blitzing us with uncomfortable heat and humidity or thunderstorms and it will be just right with cool breezes, clear skies and temperatures in the lower to middle 70s early this evening. The sports team is all geared up and we will have plenty of highlights tonight from West Lafayette, Mc Cutcheon, and Jeff and that is just a small sample.

Today's weather is also just the beginning of a beautiful pattern. We have a huge double-barreled high pressure coming down from Canada. This is the same system that has really controlled our weather for much of the month of August and has helped to divert the jet stream about 1,000 miles farther south than where it should be. We have only had 2 days of rain in August with cooler, more stable air in place and has helped continue our streak of having no official 90 degree weather at least at the Purdue airport has reached an incredible 67 days!

Usually we are under the influence of a Bermuda high pressure this time of year with plenty of heat and humidity. Having a 90 degree day this time of year is as common as firing up the grill or eating some sweet corn on the porch. Well not this year and I am still concerned about an early frost around September 23rd. The forecast is for an early Frost, an early snow, and maybe a mild winter with an early Spring. There are plenty of mixed signals as we head into 2009 and our winter so stay tuned. Chances of a cold autumn is looking likely at this point. Summer is not totally done yet as the Bermuda High does show signs of making a comeback in our forecast the last week of August and for Labor Day. So if you are looking for hot weather you will have to wait awhile. In the shorter term, the East Coast will still have to watch the tropics carefully and an active tropics usually means a slow-moving weather pattern for us. This is good news if you like sunny, comfortable weather. For those that missed out on the rain yesterday you may want to water the plants because our next chance of rain may hold off until at least the middle of next week and even that is no guarantee. It was very strange yesterday with areas between Lafayette and Battle Ground not receiving a single drop of rain while other areas toward Shadeland picking up between a half-inch and one inch of rain. Luckily, I have not had to water the lawn once this year and the tomatoes have loved the weather we have had this summer. This is an understatement!

I wanted to thank our weather watcher Marty from Otterbein for bringing in some fresh Better Girl tomatoes yesterday. My ham sandwhich never tasted so good last night and they were the sweetest tomatoes I have ever had. Now I am hungry for some BLT's even if it is before 9 a.m. You do not even have to put those tomatoes on anything they are so delicious. Okay, let's keep the good news coming!

Let's get right to our skylights for the weekend:

Tonight look for Saturn, Venus, and Mercury all bunched up in the sky together after sunset. Remember planets do not twinkle, but stars do in case you have trouble identifying them.

The moon will be playing tag with Jupiter which of course has a big storm raging on its surface that is 3 times the size of the earth and has wind speeds close to 250 mph.

Speaking of the moon we will miss the lunar eclipse unless you are heading to Europe for the weekend. But we will not miss out on the FULL RED MOON which is officially Saturday night. It will be a great night for all those heading out to the Indiana State Fair. Nature has you covered along with all the great food and displays

Last but not least have a wonderful Friday and like Teri reminded all the bloggers, it will be a great day to go to the Humane Society Garage Sale to help raise money for those special animals. I will make sure to post an animal hero here on the blog by this afternoon and some other pictures. This dog actually herded her family and warned them that bad weather was on the way last Monday night before the tornado hit Benton County. My nickname for her is TORNADO DOG! Thanks for reading and I will check back soon.

Our Stranger Summer Just Keeps Getting Stranger!

We have to start off this morning with a song from the Twilight Zone. Snow is in the forecst in northern Wyoming on Friday night which is only about 1,200 miles from Lafayette and at the same time we have no 90 degree weather even close to us. A nor'easter is heading up the East Coast. Florida has had damaging thunderstorms due to a cold front nearby. Normally this does not happen until October. The big threat for Florida by early next week will be a hurricane. There could be not one but two hurricanes forming in the next 10 days. I haven't even gotten to the 110 mph jet stream howling into the Tennesee Valley from the northwest. What season is it? You could make a case all of our upper-level maps are looking like a mix of autumn and winter. The developing hurricanes will be a reminder that it really is still summer. I will have more on this bizarre pattern and the Purdue's back to school forecast. Boiler Up!

Developing!!

Autumn Pattern Brings More Meteor Showers than Rain Showers & Rare Funnel Clouds

Good morning! Here is a nice picture to start your day off on the right foot. This should wake us all up. Thank you Marty Sloan for sending in this picture of a shooting star over Wolf Park during the Perseid meteor shower on Monday night. Look just above trees. You can see why the wolves and humans were howling over nature's dazzling display. I did get to see one bright, slow-moving shooting star while walking the dog. There were even some high cirrus clouds and some neighborhood lights to contend with but they were no match for nature's big show.

Michael Phelps was once again the talk of the Olympics last night as he continues to strive for perfection and here at home nature just did not want to be outdone. We also had reports yesterday evening around 8 p.m. of 2 cold air funnels just north of Newton County at the Interstate 65, route 2 interchange that caused a big raucous on the scanners. Mary Anne in Remington immediately notified me from her Best Weather Network and I cannot thank her enough. Remember doppler radar does not pick them up as they are too small and isolated. Take a look above at the cold air funnel that was spotted in Tippecanoe County back on June 12, 2003. These cold air funnels are usually harmless and occur in the early Spring and late autumn due to unusally cold air aloft. Cold air funnels usually do not reach the ground like the traditional funnels that sometimes cause tornadoes. Many times you do not even need to have a thunderstorm or rain for cold air funnels to form and this means no downdrafts to bring them to the ground. But, in rare cases these funnels can reach the ground and sometimes they can cause damage. On June 12, 2003 we actually did have the tornado sirens go off in Tippecanoe County because one of these cold air funnels did reach the ground downing a couple trees. While the damage is usually minor, Michigan did record wind gusts close to 100 mph with one of these things a couple summers ago. But these stories are certainly the exception to the rule and yesterday here is what the cold air funnel looked like near Lowell, Indiana.

Thank you Amy Taylor and Mary Anne in Remington for getting this to me. Notice the sun was even shining on this cold air funnel. It lasted about 10 minutes and never reached the ground. Remember with cold air aloft this can cause steep lapse rates and strong updrafts to form and as a result of this it can cause a lot of spin and this vorticity is stretched upward and it is forced to speed up just like when an ice skater pulls their arms in toward their body. The surrounding air in the atmosphere rushes in to replace this rising air creating our cold air funnel. Yes, even in quiet weather patterns meteorologists stay busy in the Hoosier state.

In the forecast today we are only going to see a slight chance of a shower, but keep in mind as a frontal system moves through the area tomorrow we could see more numerous showers and maybe a thundershower but not everybody will see rain. We do have a chance for more cold air funnels mainly on Thursday afternoon but again I am not expecting these funnels to reach the ground as tornadoes nor am I expecting any severe weather like we saw near Boswell last Monday night. Notice the grain silos wrapped in the trees just southeast of Boswell last week after the EF-0 tornado hit the area. I went to Benton County to visit the Harmans that had the tornado rip through their yard and I found an unlikely hero. I will have more on this developing story, but again no repeat this time around. I will also blog more about hurricanes and snow becoming threats here in the United States. That is right, snow!! Here is a quick video of snow that fell in Canberra, Australia on Sunday. I know the Boilermakers Basketball team is playing Down Under. I hope they are staying warm or close to Etan Moore who has been on fire all this week. Have a great day and bring on the snow!

A Bright & Cool First Day of School for TSC Kids

It was an auspicious start to school weatherwise and otherwise for TSC kids this morning. I am so proud of all my daughters and a big thank you to my wife who keeps all of us in our family on track. Not bad for a middle child! But seriously I would also like to exend a Happy Middle Child's Day wish and peace branch to Julie. I have tried my best with her to get the kids to bed earlier over the last few days. I slipped up a little with a father-daughter Freaky Friday party the other night. It really was a funny movie and the popcorn was good. The girls do have me wrapped around their fingers. But it was not the best of ideas and I will be stronger next time. You live and learn. The good news is the girls got up this morning just fine and Megan you see above on the left is now in middle school which is nothing short of shocking. Our Abbey on the right has already written her new teacher a letter. Now I was always close to my teachers but this is taking it to a new level. My youngest daughter Lauren wanted to get on the bus with them this morning and I am convinced she is already at a first grade level thanks to her smart older sisters. She would have done just fine. For now I am just trying to enjoy our time together becaue that day is coming and coming too soon!




A big thank you to our neighbor Jesse who had doughnuts and orange juice at her house this morning for all the kids in the neighborhood for thier big day. It has become a tradition. The other good news was that we only had a little patchy fog to the tree tops and for the most part the cars passing the kids at the bus stop did slow down and stayed alert. I witnessed a kid that ran right in front of an oncoming car and it was scary. The good news is that it had a happy ending because the car was going nice and slow and paying attention.

With school starting up tomorrow on the West side this is another good reminder to allow extra time to get to work. The weather looks great once again on Wednesday but that is not enough. Please watch for kids that dart so drive smart and look closely for buses that go and stop frequently and allow plenty of spacing. It can literally save a life.

Now speaking of kids I had a nice chat at the bus stop this morning with many of them before they got on the bus about when their first snow day will be. This unusually cool August pattern that has brought frost to parts of Minnesota and the coolest daytime highs since 1882 to Upstate New York is a sign of things to come for our autumn and winter. Here in Lafayette we have not set any records but lows reached the upper 40s in Crawfordsville. So you can make the case that it is one of our chilliest weather patterns in August since 1989 here in Indiana. I will post more on this here on the blog and have more on this tonight on the news. I do not think we need any folklore for this forecast. I will just have the cold hard facts. Man, this house is quiet. I better go sing a song with Lauren.

One Week Later We Get Ready for Another Big Show in the Sky!

It is great to be back. I loved my walks on the beach and having some wonderful home-cooked meals, but I did miss my bloggers, viewers, and just being able to do what I love and that is talking about our wonderful and wild Indiana weather on television. Today I have really enjoyed looking at tons of long-range models and I have also been organizing all those school supplies with my kids and getting them ready for their first day of school tomorrow. It is hard to believe it is back to school tomorrow. At least the kids have a fall-like pattern to get them in the school spirit and no severe weather to worry about!

Last Monday night we were ravaged with flooding rain, a tornado, and plenty of lightning. My plane flew right into that vicious storm front on my way home last week and it was amazing watching more than one lightning flash per second for the last hour of our flight. Luckily, I had a window seat and sat on the side of the plane facing west where you could really see those huge flashes clearly. Yes, I tried to stay quiet about it so I would not panic anybody on the plane. My heart started racing when I thought about this being the same front that dropped a tornado in Benton County. While I love to fly, I do admit I was a little nervous when I saw this huge wall of towering black clouds snuff out the stars along with vivid lightning. I said a prayer, wiped my clammy hands and warned the girls to put up their trays and finish their drinks quickly before the captain put the seatbelt sign back on. Abbey of course knew exactly what was going on because she checked the radar in the Atlanta airport. The good news is she fell asleep before the worst of the turbulence hit. We did not bounce around too much as the worst of the weather stayed to our west. We landed and I felt like I had a new lease on life and thanked the captain as I got off the plane. My advice to parents is to take the midnight flight home. The kids are tired and you even save some money. I was shocked that the Indianapolis Airport was full of people at 1 a.m. It might as well have been 1 p.m. because it was very busy.

One week later we can look forward to another big show in the sky. This time it is in the form of a major meteor shower. That is right look to the east-northeast tonight after 9 p.m. for the Perseid meteor shower. It is one of the bigger shooting star events of the entire year with 1 to 2 shooting stars possible per minute. The peak viewing will be after midnight tonight to just before dawn. Specks of comet dust will be hitting the earth's atmosphere at over 130,000 mph creating a beautiful display. The Perseid meteor shower is also known for its earthgrazers. These are slow-moving colorful shooting stars the seem to skip across the horizon and many times they look like they will reach the ground. The best viewing for this phenomenon will be just after sunset or between 9 p.m. and 11 p.m.

This is just the beginning of a very eventful week nature will put on in the sky. We also have the moon and planets lining up close together, a few planets chasing each other in the sky, and a lunar eclipse. I will have all the details here on the blog by this evening and the good news is I will tell you about a nice tranquil weather pattern so we can look to the heavens, sit back, and just enjoy. I will see you soon.

Greetings from Sunny Florida! I am Bringing Back some Sunshine with Me!

Hello! Yes, it is me Mike with your weather update from blazing hot Florida. I am checking in with you even though I am more than 1,000 miles away and still on vacation the rest of the week, I still make sure I keep in touch with our weather at home. I am glad everybody is safe and sound and I did worry about the "meteorologist jinx" happening while I was gone and boy did it ever last night and this morning. The jinx refers to a big weather event that always seems to hit Lafayette when I take a vacation. Tom Skilling in Chicago has told me he has the same problem! :) On a more serious note, my hats off to all the weather bloggers and of course Weather Team 18! You all did a terrific job last night and this morning. I am glad things are settling down after a night of training thunderstorms that brought 3 to 6 inches of rain to northern Indiana and some severe weather. The good news is that the stormy front that brought all of this weather is moving out of our viewing area and no more significant rain is expected.

I have talked to our weather watcher Mark Robertson on the phone in Monticello who has been working with Gordy Cochran at White County Emergency Management throughout the day and the good news is that if the forecast holds the Norway Dam will continue to steady off and fall overnight and Wednesday. A Flood Watch continues until Noon Wednesday just in case we have any more pop up storms. This includes areas downstream on the Tippecanoe River in White and Carroll County. Any additional heavy rain that occurs will have the potential of causing water levels to crest even higher. So for now we all will keep our eyes on Live Doppler 18. The good news is right now no more heavy rain is anticipated which should keep the Tippy from rising any more. Here are some more good tidbits.The latest Norway Dam water level is at 7,000 cfs as of 2 p.m. Lowland flooding can occur when it reaches 9,000 cfs, but again this is not expected.

My plane leaves Florida tonight at 7:30 p.m. I will do my part and bring back lots of sunny and dry weather from the Sunshine State. Everybody is doing well here in Florida and it was great to spend lots of great time with my parents and grandmother. The latest heat index is up to 100 and we have already hit the pool to stay cool. I look forward to getting back to Indiana and will be back officially in the office on Monday. The latest long-range maps do show a nice quiet sunny pattern at least through early next week with not only relief from the humidity, but plenty of dry weather. Our next good shot at rain will likely not be until next week. That is just what the doctor ordered. Enjoy! I will talk to you soon. Now I am going to go eat a big feast Mom has whipped up before we head back North! No more surprises, okay. :) Take care.