Good Sunday morning! Rain will continue to increase today, with heavy rain at times. Rain totals look a tad lower across central and south Alabama, with storm totals between 1 and 4 inches. The higher rain amounts will fall over north Alabama, north of the surface low. Since the low track has shifted north, the [...]
Good Saturday evening! As of 6:30pm, rain is starting to increase across west and south Alabama. Rain will continue to increase tonight from the southwest, and rain will become heavy at times. Look for periods of heavy rain through Sunday and Monday. There could be some serious flooding issues across parts of west and central Alabama. [...]
An upper level disturbance over Texas is the partial remnant of a pacific tropical system. This feature slowly moves toward Central Alabama through Tuesday. The synoptic setup and evolution looks pretty good amongst the models before departures show up by Wednesday, mainly in the timing of the system finally lifting out of the area. This [...]
: Cliff Mass Weather Blog This blog provides updated forecasts and comments on current weather or other topics Saturday , September 29, 2012 The Winter Forecast and a Wimply El Nino The main tool used by meteorologists to predict the nature of the weather months ahead is the correlation of the temperature of the tropical Pacific ocean surface and the atmospheric circulation around the globe . nbsp To put it another way , meteorologists use the correlation of the El Nino and La Nina cycle called ENSO-El Nino Southern Oscillation in the business with midlatititude weather . nbsp This correlation is not perfect , but it is the most potent tool we have for predicting a few months . ahead As with any good tool , you need to know how to use it , as well as its . limitations One key rule is :
Here’s the latest output from the HPC. They are now forecasting rain totals of 2 to 3 inches across all of west and central Alabama. The main batch of rain would come in here Saturday night and last through Monday. Rain will be heavy at times due to a deep layer of Pacific and Gulf [...]
Good Friday afternoon to you! There are no issues for the local high school football games this evening, as conditions remain dry across our area. The only showers on radar are south and east of Montgomery. Conditions will be mild through the games this evening, with low 80s at kickoff and upper 70s through the [...]
Good Thursday afternoon to you! Temperatures got rather hot again this afternoon, with many spots reaching the middle to upper 80s across west and central Alabama. Once the sun sets, look for temperatures to gradually return into the 70s. Temperatures will cool much slower tonight due to high dewpoints across our area. Moist air heats [...]
Good Wednesday evening! Well, well, well… Look at the latest 18z run of the GFS. After trending south with the Gulf low, the latest run has trended back to the north with the rain shield and surface low. If this model would be correct, we would notice an increase in rain from the southwest Saturday [...]
Good Wednesday afternoon to you! Warm weather is back today, as temperatures reach the middle 80s across much of west and central Alabama. We’ve noticed a few puffy cumulus clouds across the sky today, as tropical moisture increases a bit. Due to a higher moisture level, humidity is feeling a touch higher today. Humidity levels will gradually [...]
Good Tuesday afternoon! After a nice start to the day, temperatures became rather mild this afternoon. Most spots have topped out in the lower 80s, but high level cirrus clouds have blocked out enough sunlight this afternoon to keep temperatures from reaching the middle 80s. One thing you may notice is a slight increase in [...]
BIG SUN-DIVING COMET DISCOVERED: Astronomy forums are buzzing with speculation about newly-discovered Comet C/2012 S1 (ISON). Currently located beyond the orbit of Jupiter, Comet ISON is heading for a very close encounter with the sun next year. In Nov. 2013, it will pass less than 0.012 AU (1.8 million km) from the solar surface. The [...]
Dan Bikos Typhoon Jelawat developed in the Phillippine Sea of the western Pacific Ocean around September 20, 2012. See the westernmost track of the figure below: As the cyclone began turning towards the north / northwest while it was east … Continue reading →
The first weekend of fall brought with it fall like weather. Saturday and Sunday brought beautifully sunny skies with temperatures falling from high near 80 on Saturday to a high of only 68 on Sunday behind the cold front. Overnight … Continue reading →
Chris Teren too this photograph of iridescence on a cloud over Spieden Island on the afternoon of Sept. 10.
At first blush, I think this is a fire rainbow -- ice crystals reflecting sunlight into the colors of the rainbow. Hard to say for absolute sure as it's difficult to get the right perspective as where that rainbow is in reference to the other clouds around.
: Cliff Mass Weather Blog This blog provides updated forecasts and comments on current weather or other topics Friday , September 21, 2012 Wildfire and Air Quality and When is a Drought NOT a Drought Lets begin with an amazing MODIS satellite image showing the extensive smoke over eastern WA yesterday . nbsp The densest smoke is being produced by the fires near Wenatchee , but you can see another fire south of Mount Rainier--which is spreading NW over the southern Sound . nbsp Most of the eastern Washington smoke was spreading for northwestward into BC . At the same time , the eastern Pacific is full of low clouds , with some of it pushing into the Strait and southwest . Washington The smoke in eastern Washington is producing extraordinarily bad air quality near Wenatchee and Cashmere .
The surface high pressure system that entered the area yesterday has mostly migrated to the New England states, but is still exhibiting control over our area into the lower Mississippi River valley. A cold front is extending from a surface … Continue reading →
: Cliff Mass Weather Blog This blog provides updated forecasts and comments on current weather or other topics Monday , September 17, 2012 No More Siberian Smoke But we got enough of our own There is lots of smoke over the Northwest these days from regional fires , as shown by the MODIS imagery below . nbsp And as I have mentioned in a previous blog , we see the unusual movement of smoke from fires over eastern WA to the west side . Dense smoke is found over the eastern slopes of the Cascades and in the valleys of . Idaho However , something profound has changed . we are no longer seeing the smoke come over from Asia . nbsp One big reason : many of the Siberian fires have been damped out by the return of cool , wetter conditions . Here are the fire maps from the MODIS satellite for late
Currently, we are situated in the southerly, return flow of an eastward tracking surface high pressure system. There is also a center of surface low pressure in the Gulf of Mexico due south of Louisiana pumping moist, Gulf air straight … Continue reading →
Ken Pryor (NESDIS / STAR) A GOES sounder-derived Microburst Windspeed Potential (MWP) algorithm, based on convective available potential energy (CAPE), and vertical temperature and humidity lapse rates, and based on the vertical difference in equivalent potential temperature (theta-e difference, TED) … Continue reading →
The weekend kicked off fairly nice across the area with partly to mostly cloudy conditions for much of your Saturday. The ridge that hovered over the Ohio Valley region much of the week moved into the New England region and … Continue reading →
: Cliff Mass Weather Blog This blog provides updated forecasts and comments on current weather or other topics Thursday , September 13, 2012 Fire Smoke Spreads Westward Both satellite imagery and visible reports have shown something that is relatively unusual---smoke form eastern Washington fires spreading westward over western WA . nbsp Here is a sequence of visible satellite images showing this , followed by a high res MODIS satellite image . really : obvious The strong easterly flow was seen in the winds measured by the Sand Point profiler over N . : Seattle Among the reports was one from a glider pilot east of Lake Sammamish Bruce Williams who took an amazing picture from the air showing the : smoke Posted by Cliff Mass Weather Blog at 10:21 PM Email This BlogThis Share to Twitter
High pressure aloft has continued to bring in very nice, but pleasant conditions across the area as high temperatures topped out in the low 80′s under mostly sunny skies. The ridge was once situated over the Ohio Valley region has … Continue reading →
A strong frontal boundry moved through the region this past weekend bringing showers and storms for many across the state. As the front tracked through the region, cooler and drier air filtered across the Commonwealth bringing very comfortable conditions for many. Monday morning … Continue reading →
Friday has continued throughout the week to becoming more promising for a chance at severe weather for Bowling Green. The Storm Prediction Center has placed Bowling Green in a slight risk for storms for Friday. A surface boundary left over … Continue reading →
There are a few really good storm photos that continue to get recirculated on social networks as the "last big storm event". One of the most dramatic is a Florida waterspout that was captured accidentally by amateur photographer Fred Smith from his back yard near Lake Okeechobee on June 15, 1993.
Brian Barnes recently entered a photograph of a supercell that occurred in Nebraska on June 16, 2011 into Week 14 of National Geographic's "Travelers Photo Contest." The photo was one of 20 picked as an "Editor's Favorite" for Week 14.
24 previously unseen photographs of the tsunami that struck Japan's northern coast on March 11, 2011. The following images are in no particular order of the events.
As most know by now, I do a lot of volunteer work in the ocean activism community when I'm not storm chasing in Tornado Alley. I was in Otsuchi Japan (Iwate Prefecture) on March 11th, 2011 monitoring the slaughter of Dall's porpoises for Ric O'Barry's Save Japan Dolphins and standing just a few feet from the water on a man made pier in the middle of Otsuchi harbor when the M9.0 earthquake hit.
We received several request for this print to be made into a poster - so here it is. No text - just a large 20 x 30 in print of this incredible tornado event!
Brand new item in our StormChase.com Zazzle store - Campo Tornado and double rainbow on a mousepad. It looks great on your desk! They're great for starting conversations as well.
Decades of computerized weather and climate data has led NOAA forecasters to predict a warm and dry winter in the Pacific Northwest.
The mystery man behind the Farmer's Almanac winter forecast agrees on the dry part, but not necessarily on the warm part.
After all, they did leak the iPhone4 months before it was officially announced by Steve Jobs. Maybe they know something about this storm meteorologists dont know. Today they are talking about the big weather event that is affecting much of the central US today and will affect the northeast US tomorrow. As of this morning [...]
Hey Everyone! Just a quick update. Things are well down in Asheville North Carolina! But we can’t wait to return to New England for the holiday season! I just wanted to point out the obvious… Technology is awesome! How awesome? This entire post was made on my iPod touch! While this concept is years old, [...]
Monday has brought us clearing from the remnants of Isaac with skies becoming partly cloudy by noon today and sunshine popping out around 2 pm. Rainfall totals over the weekend for Bowling Green ranged anywhere from 1 inch to 1.3 … Continue reading →
: : Cliff Mass Weather Blog This blog provides updated forecasts and comments on current weather or other topics Tuesday , September 4, 2012 A Nail Biter : Will Seattle Beat the All-Time Record Dry Streak Today Tuesday brings Seattle to 44 days without rain . nbsp Impressive Tomorrow will be dry , allowing us to tie the second longest dry-spell 45 days and we will certainly beat it , with dry conditions guaranteed through Saturday 48 days But will we beat the all time record---51 days-- which we will tie on Tuesday Sept . 11th if it doesn't rain Folks . it is going to be close . nbsp Lets start with one of the best long-range forecasting tools , the output from the North American ensemble forecasting system , in which many forecasts are considered . nbsp Consider the second panel down .