Soaking Rain And Isolated T-Storms Friday AM

Beneficial, soaking rains are moving through parts of Central Virginia this Friday morning. The downside to this activity is how quickly the rain is moving to the Northeast, which does not allow heavy rains to fall over any one spot for an extended period of time. However, it does look like rain coverage and intensity is increasing this morning, with isolated thunderstorms developing in South-Central Virginia as of 6:30 a.m.

These showers and isolated storms are moving to the Northeast at 50 to 60 mph, and will affect much of Western and Central Virginia through the rest of this morning.

--Carrie

The Sun Is Giving Us The Silent Treatment

NASA data continues to indicate that the Sun’s current activity level, or lack-there-of, is the deepest solar minimum in a century. In fact, the Sun has not had a sunspot in 80 of the days so far in 2009. That’s 87% of the time this year, the Sun has been spotless. The Sun’s current spotless streak is 25 consecutive days, with the last sunspot observed in early March. The longest blank streak in the past century was 92 days, which occurred nearly 100 years ago during April, May, and June of 1913. While this solar minimum is notable (seriously, it hasn't been this quiet in nearly a century!), the Sun would have to remain blank from now until early June 2009 to tie the 1913 record. (For a check of the Sun’s daily solar activity, go to http://www.spaceweather.com/)


(Above: The sunspot cycle from 1995 to the present. The jagged curve traces actual sunspot counts. Smooth curves are fits to the data and one forecaster's predictions of future activity. Credit: David Hathaway, NASA/MSFC.)

The Sun has a regular cycle it goes through about every eleven years, with a predictable, steady rise and fall in solar activity (i.e., sunspots, irradiance, magnetic energy emission). And most NASA scientists thought 2008 was rock bottom for this solar cycle’s minimum. No sunspots occurred 73% of the days in 2008 (that’s 266 days out of 366). Only 1913 had more spotless days at 311 blank sun days.

But well into 2009, the Sun continues to give us the silent treatment, with an overwhelming majority of the days this year being blank. Year-to-date, the Sun has been “silent” 80 out of 92 days. Although the Sun continues to adhere to its traditional solar cycle, this minimum may be especially unusual because it is also accompanied by a 50-year low in solar wind pressure, a 12-year low in solar irradiance, and a 55-year low in solar radio emissions, according to NASA data. For more on those three points, check out NASA’s discussion here.

So if the Sun is in a minimum of activity, does this mean we don't need to worry about the sunscreen this Summer? NO! Slather on that good, protective sunscreen! Take it from someone who knows...a fair-skinned redhead with blue eyes. Yes, you guessed it, it takes me all of 10 minutes to turn from white to lobster red in the sun without protection. Wear sunscreen! Just do it. Seriously.
--Carrie

March Rainfall Summary

Central Virginia’s March fit the cliché of “in like a lion and out like a lamb.” A snowstorm with up to a foot of snow in parts of Central Virginia blew through March 1-2, 2009. The final days of March were fairly uneventful, remaining dry and warming into the 60’s and 70’s. However, we made good progress this month on picking up some rainfall, especially toward the end of the month. Here are some of the March rainfall totals from the area:

Richmond Intl Airport: 4.26” in March (that's +0.17” departure from average for the month). However, Richmond is still 4.13” below average year-to-date, with a total 6.49” of liquid precipitation. And, despite the impressive snowstorm the beginning of this month, Richmond is still 5.8” below average for this season’s snowfall. So far this Winter season, we accumulated only 6.6” officially, 6.3” of which fell in March. You can view March daily weather data here.

Norfolk: 5.28” in March (+1.20” depature from average for the month), with 8.36” year-to-date (-2.99” departure from average for the year-to-date)
Petersburg: 4.09” in March, with 10.62” year-to-date
Wakefield: 5.87” in March
Farmville: 1.84” in March
Emporia: 2.11” in March
Danville: 3.37” in March
Williamsburg: 2.00” in March
Fredericksburg: 0.84” in March
Charlottesville: 2.28” in March
Roanoke: 3.47” in March

Weather Watcher Reports:
Reedville: 4.7” rain (also had 3” of snow) in March
Newland: 4.4” rain in March
Coatesville: 3.28" rain in March (with year-to-date total of 5.98")

For the latest information on the Virginia drought situation, click here.