What Happened To Winter?

Each year you know spring is around the corner when you hear people out riding their motorcycles - today they were out in full force! It looks like the cold Canadian air will stay bottled up north through at least next weekend. The next three days will be mainly quiet, then it's looking like it will be a stormy end to the week. A powerful storm will park itself over the Midwest and draw in moisture from both the Gulf of Mexico and the Atlantic Ocean. You will definitely notice the changes by Thursday and Friday!


We should see two or three waves of rain between Thursday and Saturday. In addition, we could see isolated thunderstorms embedded in these showers. Although the threat for severe storms seems limited at the time, a few strong storms could develop on Friday. Surface dew points should reach the lower 50s:

I'm expecting surface temps to also climb to near 70 degrees in the afternoon, so there should be enough instability to support thunderstorm development.

Jet stream winds will be strong enough to provide speed shear (increasing winds with height). However, this shear might be too strong and limit thunderstorm development.

This is still a long way out, and there are a lot of factors to consider. Regardless, it will be something that we will monitor through the week and will keep you updated!

New Weather Satellite In Space

GOES-P was launched into space yesterday. Once it's positioned in orbit 22,300 miles in the sky, it will be renamed GOES-15. This new satellite will help us track storm systems and monitor climate by providing crucial surface and ocean temperatures.

Current Snowpack

Here's the latest plot of snow depth across the region. You can spot a couple patches of snow from the storm earlier this week - one near the Middle Peninsula and another farther to the southwest. You can find these plots at the following link:

http://www.nohrsc.nws.gov/interactive/html/map.html