Historic Snowstorm for Deep South & Winter in Charge Here at Home

The big swirl you see over Nebraska is our upper-level disturbance that will turn into a cut-off low pressure in the Deep South. Snowflakes could fly as far south as Florida and heavy snow will be possible as far south as Atlanta. It could then turn up the Coast and finally give Washington, D.C. its first real snowstorm now that meteorological Spring is here. The amazing part of all this is that we will have better travel weather in Indiana than down in Tennessee, the Carolinas, and even parts of Alabama, and Georgia. We should not be complaining about our single digit wind chills over the weekend and those few stray snow flurries.


Even better news is the drier weather will help river levels to start dropping by later on Sunday. Forecast crests will be in the minor range. You see the Wabash River crest at Lafayette cresting at 1.7 feet above flood stage on Sunday. The Covington river level will be cresting at 1.2 feet above normal. This is great news considering most areas have had about 200% their normal precipitation this month not including all the snow melt.


Things should be nice and quiet for much of the coming week and this is the perfect time for me to take my best friend and wife on what you can call a Ground Hog Day present trip that was planned. I think she liked her Valentine's Day gift this year. Remember we celebrate it on Ground Hog Day! I wanted to make sure you knew that I am taking a few days off and will be back on Thursday. We are starting up a new and improved weather blog on wlfi.com and will have more details coming. Right now it is under construction and I will be taking time to help finalize this transition so you have the best weather blog possible.

My wife and I are looking forward to a few days away and cannot believe we will be all alone. I want to thank my mother-in-law for coming in from Wisconsin and helping out. This will be kind of like a second honeymoon for Julie and I. When is the last time we had a trip for 5 consecutive days alone? It may have been our honeymoon cruise almost 14 years ago. It is fitting we are going back to our private place we got married at. It is our get-away place that I feel every couple should have. We may have waited too long, but we found a way back and most importantly back together.

Do not worry! Please do not look into this more than you should. I do look forward to coming back to Indiana to take you through the rest of March Mayhem. It should be a fun month that is for sure! We need to get our picnic planned as well and I think a mid to late April picnic should work. If we wait until May I may be called into work to track tornadoes with you and it may spoil all of our good food and fun we will be having. So we do not want to wait too long to set up our weather watcher and blogger picnic. I will also work on T-Shirts with brow and promotions when I get back! It will be fun! Now it is Julie time!! Keep on blogging and have a great weekend. I do have a lap-top I can check in with you on. I always like hearing what you are doing and of course all your great weather stories and observations!

March Will Be In Like a Lion and Out Like a Lamb

The origin of this weather proverb, " in like a lion out like a lamb" was first written about in England in 1624. Almost 400 years later it is still one of the most famous weather proverbs not only in England but the United States. The month of March is a notorious transition month with plenty of ups and downs and since this weekend our weather team is forecasting a chance of snow with temperatures a good 10 to 15 degrees below average along with wind chills dipping into the single digits. In other words March is coming in like a lion.

Winter's roar is certainly being heard loud and clear. By later in the month as our days grow longer and Spring air masses become more prevalent our chances of nice tranquil weather or March going out like a lamb increase. So for now I am going to say we are going in like a lion and out like a lamb. But of course here in Indiana there are no guarantees and we all know that the lion can roar all the way up until Mother's Day sometimes. Will this year be different? I do think we will see some more accumulating snow in March with plenty of ups and downs. The good news is that our average highs reach near 60 degrees by the end of the month so the weather does become much easier to take. In fact I was amazed that this weather proverb has worked very well 8 of the past 10 years. So we will keep that glass half full and say it will work out in our favor this year, even if that glass is half frozen this weekend. :)


This is the picture of the snake Suzi and I saw along the Wea creek.
It is very unusual to see a snake in February, since they like warmer temperatures. Thought Mike would find this interesting. Maybe we are going to have a early spring.

Lynn

Thanks Lynn. I know these snakes usually do not come out until late March when we start averaging about one thunderstorm per week. The old Hoosier saying is that the thunder shakes them out of hibernation. Well I think our back to back days with highs near 60 did the trick this week. But in only 12 hours we went from a few rumbles of thunder to a light covering of snow for our weather watcher Mary Beth in Kentland. I think this snake is sorry he or she came out early this year. The lion is coming! Winter is roaring back into our forecast. Also, I do not think we will have any moth reports for awhile with winter taking hold once again. But that is okay I found a great way to stay warm and did enjoy some great company on my Friday!



I want to send a special shout out to the Creative Corral Pre-Schoolers at McCutcheon. Those kids and teachers are incredible and I enjoyed every bit of my visit and field trip with them. I had a blast going to the bowling alley with the kids and even had a nice lunch and then plenty of play time. My fun did not end there. I went by and saw the Future Farmers of America exhibits at McCutcheon High. I learned a whole lot and did not realize how important donkeys can be on the farm and yes that pot-bellied pig was huge! You see Lauren enjoying the miniature pony below. The McCutcheon students were great tour guides and they are even awesome chefs for their teachers from what I hear!

As you can tell I had a great time with my daughter Lauren, her class, and all the great folks at McCutcheon. By time our day was done and I had to get ready for work Lauren told me that it was the best day ever. This makes a Dad feel absolutely terrific and I look forward to spending more days like this with Lauren and my whole family. The best part of my job is not in front of the camera it is actually getting out in the community and seeing all the wonderful people that make it a truly special place to live. Have a great weekend.

Cold Front Charging Our Way!

Rainfall Updates as of 2:00 a.m. The news is terrific. Yes, we had a couple of loud booms of thunder, but no severe weather reports across the area. Most of our wind gusts remained close to 40 mph and the heavy downpours moved fairly rapidly through the area. We can consider ourselves likely and I think any flooding on the rivers should be minor.

Update as of 10:20 p.m.

Our first few rumbles of thunder have been reported in Benton County. A report of pea-size hail near Perrysville in Vermillion County....Latest Live Doppler 18 scan still showing everything is on track with our main threats being heavy downpours and wind gusts near 40 mph.


Update as of 10:00 p.m.

Thunderstorm line continues to lose intensity with no lightning being reported in Indiana as it moves across the state line. Wanda in Boswell does have some heavy downpours and gusty winds near 30 mph. I would not be surprised to see a few gusts in the 40 to 45 mph range between now and about 2 a.m. as this front passes through the area. There is still a small chance of a little pea-size hail but as of now expect a quick half-inch of rain along with gusty winds. Be careful on the roadways over the next few hours and then we will get ready for the big temperature drop!


Update as of 9:30 p.m.

The cold front moving our way does not have much lightning associated with it at this time. The number of lightning strikes across northern and central Illinois have decreased rapidly as they have approached Indiana. The severe thunderstorm risk area will likely be from St. Louis into southern Illinois and Indiana. Here at home we could still see isolated wind gusts of 40 to 50 mph, a few rumbles of thunder, and brief heavy downpours. I will check more data and be back!

Dense Fog Lifts, Now We Brace for Wind & Rain

I hope everybody is doing well and feeling well. The late winter flu that has been going around has hit my family. My daughter is home from school for the third straight day. She seems a little better today but this thing going around seems to linger on forever and I have been fighting it for most of this week. No way will it keep me down. There is just too much interesting weather to track. Now the big question is will we need urgent care when it comes to our weather today and tonight. First of we can blame all the illnesses going around on the incredible ups and downs in our weather and there really is no end in sight. Take a look at forecast high temperatures by Friday.

This morning we did need to slow it down on area roadways with visibilities down to near a quarter-mile in many locations with patchy dense fog. This was due to a warm, moist south wind that caused our dewpoints to rise while at the same time our temperatures were slowly falling. The closer your temperature and dewpoint the better chance of fog developing, especially with light winds and that is exactly what happened. The worst of the fog will be out of here by mid-morning as we start heating up and the wind picks up ahead of rain.

Speaking of rain....how much is on the way and will there be flooding?


Let us start with the area rainfall. So far this month we have had 2.52" of precipitation in Lafayette. February is normally our driest month of the year and we average only 1.57" of precipitation. Well this year we will likely double our February monthly averages and on top of that we have melted down about .75" of liquid that was stored in the snow pack we had. This means we do need any more rain or snow. The ground is saturated and our rivers and creeks are still not far from bankfull. Well, I have good news! The latest model data has most of our viewing area receiving less than an inch of rainfall. The main track low pressure track will be heading to Chicago and it is far northern Illinois and Indiana that will have the heaviest rain. So even our friends in Remington, Rennselaer, and Winamac should be okay. We could see a slight rise once again in our river levels but I am not expecting flooding at this time. Bottom line is that most of us end up with less than an inch of rain.


Severe weather potential: I went through a big list of things this morning that includes wind shear, helicity, upper-level winds, and instability indices. The good news is I think we will not only dodge the worst of the rain but also the severe weather. Things are just not lining up right at this time. The atmosphere will be most unstable at 9 p.m. but the main cold front that will add lift to the atmosphere does not arrive until after midnight. The jet stream that usually adds spin to our thunderstorms that can lead to damaging wind, tornadoes, and even large hail is well south and west of Indiana. Areas near Oklahoma and Arkansas look to be the bullseye for the big thunderstorms. You see the severe weather risk above and I agree that it should stay west of our viewing area.

The one thing that I did find interesting is that once the front comes through after midnight we could briefly see wind gusts in the 40 to 50 mph outside of thunderstorms. When you are going from temperatures from near 60 today to only near 30 by late tomorrow this huge temperature gradient creates big pressure differences and a higher likelihood of high wind gusts. I do think the high wind gusts will not last more than a couple of hours so a high wind advisory will not be likely. It will remain breezy though with wind chills falling into the teens by late on Friday.

Tonight make sure to tune in and we will track the rain and wind together and find out about a very cold weekend ahead. It may be so cold that chances of snow will be possible as far south as Alabama, Georgia, and even the beaches of South Carolina. We will take a closer look at major changes that have taken place in the atmosphere over the last 10 days and why it may be a sign of a much colder March. Remember to send in some rain totals and I do think we could still hear a few rumbles of thunder tonight but the line of storms will dramatically weaken as it moves our way after midnight. This afternoon we will have a weak line of scattered showers which means we can still head to the park before winter makes a comeback. It is time for lunch! I am ready for some egg salad and soup! Be safe and stay healthy!

Comet Watching & Looking and Smelling Like Spring

What a spectacular Mardi Gras sunset showing high-level moisture traced all the way back to the tropical Pacific Ocean. Our Fine Fat Tuesday will give way to a Wonderful Wednesday today!

It was a Mardi Gras to remember at WLFI....it got a little wild....most of the night crew got up on the roof. It was my idea of course since comet Lulin was in the Lafayette sky last night in the southeast. I told everybody to look east-southeast or almost the exact opposite direction from where Venus was setting in the West. Unfortunately nature put a bit of a damper on our "sky party" with cirrus clouds that blocked out what could have been a breath-taking view of a two-tailed comet. Usually comets only have one tail but the solar wind has distorted Comet Lulin's tail with speeds approaching one million miles per hour! The amazing part is this comet is passing only about 14 million miles from the moon which means it is not all that far from the earth astronomically speaking. It is a rock throw away. The night crew was a bit disappointed and thought I was just teasing everybody. Now, I have never been known to do that....well not too much at least. :) The comet did not appear yesterday evening but I told them we will have ample opportunity to see this amazing comet as we head into March. I will keep you updated on it here on the blog. It should be visible without binoculars which is impressive. Comet Update as of 12:30 a.m. Reports of Comet Lulin in the area....now that is more like it. Send in those pictures please!


Now a lot of folks are excited about our Spring pattern and I was educated as to one of Indiana's first signs of Spring today thanks to Richard Beedle. The picture above tells the Spring story nicely. That is right the skunk cabbage is out and its flowers are among the first signs of Spring. Here is a nice picture sent in from Attica yesterday. Richard tells me that this cabbage does actually smell like a skunk if you break its leaves in two. One other interesting tidibit...the smell of skunks in the air this time of year is a sure sign of Spring. It does not come from the cabbage above but from actual skunk mating season that takes place this time of year. The male skunks apparently spray each other when fighting for the females! The more traditional signs of Spring were also in the air yesterday with singing robins in Monticello, flocking geese to the north in Stockwell, sandhill cranes over Lafayette, and believe it or not daffodils and tulips two inches out of the ground on the southside in Lafayette. Spring is everywhere you look including the latest weather maps in tonight with back to back days in the 50s expected. Is it here to stay? No, it looks like we are still in that same wild pattern we have had most of the winter with plenty of extreme weather.


This winter has been a very average winter when you look at days above average, days below average, and near average. Snowfall is at 18.2" which is exactly normal for this time of year to date! I will have the entire breakdown on tonight's news. It has been called a rough winter when in fact it is really a typical Indiana winter. We just have been spoiled rotten over the last couple decades. Now that the Pacific Ocean is flip-flopping to a colder cycle and the sun is going into a solar minimum and settling down, the winter we had this year will be more common with even snowier and colder winters becoming more likely. The only thing certain about our weather in Indiana is that it does not stay quiet for long and our tranquil sunsets can turn into raging rivers and creeks in an instant like you see above! Tami Conn shows us a picture of the Wea Creek earlier in February when flooding hit the area. When will this happen again? Sooner than you think. Tune in tonight and I will have more on the blog shortly! Here is your weather quote of the day:

"Its not about how hard you can hit, its about how hard you can get hit and keep moving forward".

-Rocky Balboa

This sounds more like a weather quote to me and sums up our weather very nicely this winter. We have been hit over and over but nature has not been able to knock us out. We have just too much heart. The weather bloggers on here and our wonderful viewers cannot be denied about the fact that Hoosiers are seasoned and tough. Nature will throw a few more left hooks and combinations at us before we get the warm weather to stick around. But by working together we will come out victorious Rocky! Rocky! Rocky! We can nickname Thursday's storm Mr. T. I will have more on "T" tonight and what we will need to do to prepare for it!

Flat Stanley Visits Lafayette & Brings Warmer Weather from Houston!

Flat Stanley takes on Lafayette. Flat Stanley was sent by Cameron Barton from Houston, Texas. For those of you familiar, Flat Stanley is based on a book where Stanley was rolled by a steamroller and his family mailed him to California. It is a great experience for kids to learn about other parts of the country by creating their own Flat Stanley and sending him on tour.

I want to give a special shout-out to all the school kids in Houston, Texas this morning viewing this blog. What you see in the picture above is my daughter Lauren getting some help from Flat Stanley. Lauren and Stanley were my big helpers on Saturday as a half-inch of one inch of snow fell on Lafayette, Indiana. If you look closely you can see Flat Stanley holding the snow shovel in Lauren's right hand. Lafayette is located an hour north of Indianapolis or Indiana's state capital and two hours south of Chicago. Lafayette was named for one of George Washington's best friends and an American Revolutionary hero who served in Washington's Continental Army. Marquis de Lafayette helped turn the tide of the war by holding off Cornwallis' troops at Yorktown as well as winning the Battle of Rhode Island. He gained our country's first honorary U.S. citizenship.



Lafayette is known to have some of the wildest weather in the entire country where you can have all four seasons in the same day. We have just as many tornadoes per square foot as Oklahoma does on average. One day I came to work on May 30, 2004 and tracked 11 tornadoes in only 3 hours. You see one of two tornadoes above that hit Dayton, Indiana which is located in the Lafayette area's tornado alley. Amazingly, the only person that was injured was struck by lightning. Even though we do not have hurricanes in Indiana, we have hurricane force wind gusts in many thunderstorms that roll through the area. Severe thunderstorms have occurred in every single month of the year. We average a blizzard about every eight years, including our last one on February 13, 2007 that buried Lafayette with 17.5 inches of snow. This is what makes it so fun to be a meteorologist here in Lafayette, Indiana. It is a great place to call home!

The most important part of my job as a meteorologist is to keep people safe and it is a huge responsibility. This is not a glamorous job by any means. You have to really love what you do and realize it is a 24 hour a day/7 days a week job. Do not expect to be off on holidays. The show must go on and you are really needed the most when people are going to visit loved ones. You have to be 100% dedicated or this job is not for you. I do highly recommend becoming a television meteorologist. It is a job like no other and one I feel very lucky to have. The television part is really not the biggest part about what you really do. You serve your community not just on television but by actually getting out and taking an active role in your community. This should be a prerequisite no matter what you end up doing in life. The school talks and volunteerism are definitely among the most rewarding parts of this job. It fires me up, literally! I have run in 6 marathons and counting. My motto is pray hard, run hard, and work even harder. I have done weather on television now for 14 years which includes stops in Jacksonville, Florida (Hurricane Andrew in 1992, Storm of the Century in 1993) and Gainesville, Florida (flying frogs and tropical storms).... Duluth, Minnesota (my weather watcher set state record low of -60 and we had 230 inches of snow in 17 months)...Myrtle Beach, South Carolina (Hurricane Bonnie, Dolly Parton shows, the Pavilion Amusement Park, and snow on the beach!).... and Lafayette, Indiana (tracked over 70 tornadoes and the blizzard of 2007). I have a little Flat Stanley in me with all the places I have been! :)

While in Lafayette, Cameron's Flat Stanley went to the courthouse, saw downtown Lafayette (you see him with my oldest daughter Megan above) and then headed over to Purdue University which is home to the Boilermakers and many famous astronauts.


Flat Stanley took in Triple XXX or one of our country's oldest diners, the Union and the Neil Armstrong School of Engineering. The girls then took Flat Stanley to the Tippecanoe Battlefield in Battle Ground, Indiana. This was the precursor to the War of 1811 with Great Britain. This area if full of significant historical landmarks and has had plenty of famous people visit here such as Ulysses S. Grant and Mark Twain. Eli Lilly served his apprenticeship here and Dr. Mayo had a medical practice downtown. The best part of all was Flat Stanley will be added to the list of famous people to have visited Lafayette, Indiana. It has been a long time since there has been this much buzz in Lafayette and I made sure to give him some credit for bringing some of the warm weather from Texas with him. Flat Stanley is on his way home to Houston with some pictures and a couple souvenirs of the Lafayette area for Cameron. May you have a great summer full of much needed rain and may all the hurricanes and tropical storms miss you!


Here in Lafayette everybody seems to have Spring on their minds since Stanley arrived. So by popular demand I keep those Spring facts coming your way. Check them out. Even the robins around the area are getting antsy and looking inside homes for warmer weather. This weekend both Saturday and Sunday were very cold with highs only in the 20s and wind chills mainly in the single digits and teens. But check these Spring facts out!

1) Meteorological Spring begins on March 1st and is only five days away.

2) Forecast highs will hit 90 in parts of West Texas this week and 70 in Lafayette in 2 weeks!

3) Daylight Saving Time begins on March 8th and Lafayette's sunset will be at 7:47 p.m.

4) The sun angle in the sky is getting so strong this time of year (almost as strong as a September sun) that our snow melted this weekend despite highs only in the 20s.

5) The coldest part of our winter is over!

Your inspirational weather quote of the day for Texas and Indiana:


"Life should not be measured in years or the number of breaths we take,
but by the moments nature takes our breath away."

This happens quite often in both of our great states and no matter where you live it is what connects all of us. Tune in tonight whether you live in Lafayette for some more breath-taking weather on the way. How bad will those thunderstorms be on Thursday and will March come in like a lamb or lion? If you are in Texas head to http://www.wlfi.com to find out if it will in fact hit 90 degrees in parts of your state and if you will be getting some needed rain. See you soon. It is about time this blog goes national. Have a great day! Thanks again for joining us Houston, Texas.

Looking & Feeling More Like Spring as We Finish February!

Wow! I think it may have been the warmest 31 degrees I have ever felt. That was Lafayette's official high today. Keep in mind that is a shade temperature taken about 5 feet above ground level. In the sun this time of year you can add about 15 degrees to the temperature. So our 31 was more like 46 especially with the light wind. Yes, 31 degrees this time of year feels much better than it did in January due to the stronger sun angle. Our sun is almost as strong as it was way back in September. Remember the month that produced highs in the 80s and 90s! Tonight we will talk about actual temperatures reaching into the 50s with some spring thunderstorms possible. It is fitting since Sunday marks the first day of meteorological spring. It will be a frenzied finish to February but it looks like it will be the warmer days dominating more than the cold days for once. I look forward to seeing you tonight on the news with our glass more than half full as always! I will also have more signs of Spring for you coming up!

The plunging temperatures will finally give us a break and speaking of plunging I want to congratulate WLFI's very own Julie Krizen and Sue Scott. They both helped raise over 1,500 dollars for the Public School Foundation by partaking in the Polar Bear Plunge this weekend out at Tapawingo Park. They braved bitter wind chills in the teens along with snow flurries. Julie Krizen, above won the best costume. She dressed up as the Florida Sunshine since she was born and raised in Sarasota, Florida. The Sarasota Sunshine girl told me she has never been so cold and she was still shaking two hours after the big plunge, even after a 30 minute hot shower. This is the same girl that wore winter boots for the first time in her life this year. Julie Krizen has come a long way and is well on her way to becoming a true Hoosier. This was a big test she passed and most of all it was for a good cause.

Overall this event raised over 5,000 dollars that helps award grants for teachers in the classroom. They can do fun things such as teach kids in ways that really motivate them. I heard one story of a teacher using a grant to set up a CSI crime scene for her kids! This is great stuff! It is a great feeling when you can give back something to your community that makes a difference. Julie and Sue were "shining" examples of this on Saturday.


Our future is certainly bright like the sunset over Wolf Park on Sunday. Monty Sloan took this picture from the Wolf Den. This red sky at night certainly did turn into a Hoosier delight on our Monday. It was a great start to our week and it will only get better from here as polar high pressure moves out, a warm Pacific flow moves in. In other words, a taste of Spring Fever is on the way!