Heat Wave Continues

Friday

Sunny; highs around 90°

Saturday

Sun and clouds; highs around 90°

Sunday

Sun and clouds with a chance of storms; highs in the 80's

*2 PM Temperatures and Precipitation Amounts from 8 AM to 8 PM with Air Pressure*

Heat Wave Incoming

Tuesday

Showers, maybe with a few rumbles of thunder; highs around 70°


Wednesday

Clouds and sun; highs in the 80's


Thursday

Sunny; highs around 90°

Memorial Day Weekend Forecast

    Saturday

Showers tapering off in the morning, windy; highs in the 60's

Sunday













Sunny; highs near 70°

Monday

    Partly Cloudy; highs in the 70's

New Forecast Visuals

I'm going to start a new way of doing forecasts now that I have more time at home for the Summer.  I'll be using a program called 'GEMPAK' that allows me to create my own weather maps, so it will give a visual way of presenting forecasts instead of just text.  I'll give maps out to three days using the NAM model, which is a short-range model, and these map will give temperatures and air pressure for 2pm, and precipitation totals from 8am to 8pm for each day.  I will also post maps and text updates of severe weather when necessary.  I'm hoping to start this by the weekend.  

Here is an early example for tomorrow, Wednesday, May22nd:

5-Day Forecast

Monday: Clouds and sun; highs around 80°
Tuesday: Cloudy; highs in the mid-80's
Wednesday: Clouds and sun; highs in the upper-80's
Thursday: Scattered thunderstorms; highs around 80°
Friday: Showers; highs in the lower-70's

Beautiful 5-Day Forecast

Wednesday: Sun and clouds, chance of evening storms; highs in the mid-70's
Thursday: Partly Cloudy; highs around 80°
Friday: Sun, with some clouds; highs in the upper-70's
Saturday: Sun and clouds; highs in the lower-70's
Sunday: Showers; highs in the lower-70's

General Weather Misconceptions

Monsoon
  This one is one of the most popular misconceptions that I have heard growing up, and it is that people associate a heavy rain event with being a monsoon.  Yes, a monsoon is the cause of an intense rainy season and can bring a lot of rain, but it also leads to a dry season as well.  Simply put, a monsoon is a seasonal reversal of the wind pattern that is accompanied by changes in precipitation and winds.
 
  Essentially, a monsoon is caused by the difference in heating of land and water surfaces at different times of the year because each surface absorbs heat differently.  The water absorbs a lot more heat in order for it to change temperature, whereas the land takes less heat to change the temperature.  Therefore, during the warm months, the land heats up quicker than the sea causing the atmospheric gases to expand there providing lower pressure over land and higher pressure over the water.  This then results in moist air flowing from the sea to the land, called a sea breeze, and the air then rises and condenses to bring large amounts of precipitation in the 'rainy season'.
 
  The opposite occurs in the colder months when the lands cools faster than the sea.  Here, low pressure occurs over the water due to it being warmer, and air flows from the high pressure over land to the sea, called a land breeze.  Dry conditions then occur over land and precipitation falls over the water, which is why it is called the 'dry season' on land.
 
  This process is what is seen along the New Jersey shore but to a smaller and less intense scale.

Lightning

  Contrary to what is commonly believed, lightning can in fact strike the same place more than once and also does not always strike the ground

  First, lightning is an electrical discharge when there is a buildup of opposite electrical charges, and lightning is what occurs as the process that tries to make the electrical distribution equal.  To get onto the misconception, lightning can strike the same place, or human for that matter, more than once.  That is because electrical charges do not have a memory and can not know where a lightning strike has occurred before.

  Furthermore, lightning does necessarily have to strike the ground.  Differences in electrical charge can form within a cloud, between two different clouds, between a cloud and the air, or between the cloud and the surface.  Therefore, you can have four different types of lightning: intra-cloud(within a cloud), cloud-to-cloud lightning, cloud-to-air lightning, and cloud-to-ground lightning.  

  Finally, the method to tell how far away a storm is from you is called the 'flash bang method'.  Count the number of seconds between the lightning flash and thunder, then divide by five, and that is how many miles the storm is from your location.

5-Day Forecast

Friday: Partly cloudy, scattered storms late; highs in the mid-80's
Saturday: Scattered showers and storms; highs in the upper-70's
Sunday: Partly cloudy; highs in the upper-60's
Monday: Partly cloudy; highs around 60°
Tuesday: Partly cloudy; highs in the mid-60's

Beautiful 5-Day Forecast

Friday: Sunny; highs in the mid-60's
Saturday: Sun with a few clouds; highs around 70°
Sunday: Partly cloudy; highs in the mid-60's
Monday: Sun and clouds; highs around 70°
Tuesday: Light showers; highs around 70°