End in Sight?

How long will this cool weather last? I have been getting that question a lot lately from people. Personally, I love having the "cooler" weather. People like KFVS12's weekend sports anchor Chad Fryman have been complaining about the below normal temperatures. Chad would prefer it to be 120° with humidity of 90°.

It appears that we could get back to the 90°'s by Tuesday. Models have been showing me some indications of lower 90°'s for Tuesday/Wednesday for a couple of days.

Below is a look at NOAA's global forecast model from last night. Read the graphic from right to left. The red line indicated the air temperature at the surface. The green line indicates the dew point temperature. The green bars indicate when we could see rain and how much rain we could see. (Click on the image to see a larger version.)


July is going to end up one of the coolest in a long time. Here is a look at area cities and how they compare to "normal" for the month of July through July 30.

• Cape Girardeau, Missouri 5.2° below per day
• Carbondale, Illinois 1.0° below per day
• Paducah, Kentucky 3.3° below per day
• Poplar Bluff, Missouri 4.4° below per day

Time for Ear Muffs?

July continue to be a cool month. No, not the kind of cool where you where sunglasses (i.e. Joe Cool pictured right), but cool temperature wise.

If you have followed my blog or watched me on tv, you know that I like finding interesting numbers/statistics to throw out. Here is today's dose of numbers...

July 2009:

• To date, 20 out of the 26 days have been below average. That equates to 80.6% of the month being below normal.
• You think California has a deficit? We have a temperature deficit of 135°! In other words, we are 5.2° below average per day this month.
• We have hit 90° seventeen times since June 1. Only two of those days have been in July.

Looking over the next seven days, there are only two chances for us to get back to 90°. The first comes tomorrow (Monday). My forecast high is 89° for Cape Girardeau. If we can push it one more degree, we'll be back at 90°. The other chance would be maybe next Sunday.

Stay tuned...

Need Your Advice

After months and months of talking about getting one, I finally did. I broke down and bought an iPhone 3GS.

So far it seems to work well and fast.

I haven't downloaded too many apps yet. Just some of the basic ones. Twitterfon, Facebook, ESPN's ScoreCenter, Batter Statues, TWC, iHandy Level, and RadarScope. I have to admit, RadarScope is a pretty cool application. (Although it does cost $9.95.)

So now I need your help. What apps do you recommend? I prefer the free ones, but if you have one that costs a little bit, tell me about it in the comment section.

Record Temperatures

Hasn't it been great the last couple of days? High temperatures have been in the middle to upper 70's and low temperatures have been in the 50's. Who would have thought it was the middle of July???

Temperatures have been so cool that the last two days will go in to the record books.

Record Low Temperatures - Record low temperatures were broken Saturday, July 18 and Sunday, July 19.

• Saturday, July 18:
  Low Temperature: 56°
  Previous Record Low: 57° (1984)
  
• Sunday, July 19:
  Low Temperature: 54°
  Previous Record Low: 56° (1984)

We could end up breaking another low temperature Monday morning. The current forecast is calling for a low of 56° Monday morning. The current record is 60° set back in 1971.

Record Minimum High Temperatures - This one can be a little confusing. Record minimum high temperatures were set Saturday, July 18 in Cape Girardeau, Missouri and Paducah, Kentucky.

• Cape Girardeau, Missouri:
  High Temperature: 77°
  Previous Record: 79° (2003)
  
• Paducah, Kentucky:
  High Temperature: 75°
  Previous Record: 77° (2003)

Here are some interesting statistics for Summer 2009.

• To date, Cape Girardeau is 81° below average this month. That works out to 4.3° below average per day.
• Looking back at June 2009 shows that Cape Girardeau was 2.1° above average per day.
• Overall for meteorological summer (June 1 - July 19), we are 0.3° below average per day.

Hmm... Does your electricity bill reflect that?

Edit: Thought I would add in the yearly total. As of July 19, we are 92° above average or 0.5° above average per day.

Ways to Stay Cool

Its the middle of summer and we are all trying to find ways to stay cool. Here are 23 tips to help keep you cool, while trying to keep your electricity bill down.

1. Put up Sun Blockers - When the air outside is dry and cooler than the air inside, hang a damp sheet in an open window. Incoming breezes are cooled by the evaporating air.
2. Block the Sun - Closing curtains and blinds can reduce the amount of heat that passes into your home by as much as 45%, according to the U.S. Department of Energy.
3. Make a makeshift air conditioner - If it's hot but not humid, place a shallow bowl of ice in front of a fan and enjoy the breeze. As the ice melts, then evaporates, it will cool you off.
4. Give your AC some TLC - Clean or replace the filter in room and central air contiioners about once a month during the summer. If you have central AC, have the ducts checked for leaks, which can reduce a system's efficiency by as much as 15%.
5. Close the damper - While running any kind of air conditioner, shut your fireplace damper. An open one will pull hot air into your house.
6. Close everything else, too - Whether the AC is on or off, keep windows and doors shut if the temperature outside is more than 77°. Whenever the outside air temperature is hotter than the inside air, opening a window invites heat to creep in.

To read the other 17 tips, take the jump to the article from RealSimple.com.

Do you have tips for beating the heat? Leave them in the Comments section.

Active Weekend

As is usual this time of the year for southeast Missouri, southern Illinois, western Kentucky, and northwest Tennessee fronts don't push through very often. It looks like we will see a decaying cold front stall out right over the top of the area for Saturday, Sunday, and maybe Monday.

The Storm Prediction Center seems to think there will be a chance for some severe storms around the area.

Here is the Day 2 Outlook from the SPC. This covers the time range from 7am Saturday through 7am Sunday.


Their discussion hints at the possibility of a line of storms forming a bow echo and moving through southern Illinois later Saturday evening. Before this happens, with warm temperatures and relatively high dew points (in the lower 70°'s) we could see scattered thunderstorms developing near the stalled out front. I think damaging wind would be the main threat from the pop-up thunderstorms.

Here is the Day 3 Outlook from the SPC. This covers the time range from 7am Sunday through 7am Monday.


SPC's forecasters seem to think that a complex of storms could be going on early Sunday morning... then pushing east in to southern Indiana/northern Kentucky. Then during the afternoon, there could be more scattered thunderstorm development.

Hopefully, we don't have too much going on late Sunday morning. I'm working for Laura Wibbenmeyer Sunday morning, plus my normal shifts. So that means I get to handle all weather duties from noon Saturday through Sunday night. I would like to be able to go home Sunday morning after the Weekend Breakfast Show and take a nap before having to come back in Sunday afternoon.

Stay tuned...

Good Travel Deal - Airfare

Stumbled across a pretty good air fare deal on American Airlines' website this evening. You can fly one way from Chicago (O'hare), IL to Puerto Vallarta, Mexico for as little as $75 one-way.

The stipulations for the deal are that you have to stay a minimum of 2 days and a maximum stay of 30 days.

Of course, the price listed above is before international fees. The cheapest I could find was for $75 outbound on a Thursday and $81 inbound on a Saturday. Taxes and fees are another $116.62 for a total of $272.62.

If you want to try to find the cheap rates for this deal, I recommend flying out on a Thursday and flying back on a Saturday.

UPDATE: I found flights out of St. Louis starting at $99 one-way. Friday's seemed to be one of the cheaper days.

Severe Thunderstorm Watch #547

The Storm Prediction Center has issued Severe Thunderstorm Watch #547. The watch is in effect until 8:00pm CT Saturday evening.

A watch means that conditions are favorable for the development of thunderstorms capable of producing large hail, damaging winds, and dangerous lightning.



A line of thunderstorms is expected to move in from the west later this afternoon/evening. The main threat from the line of storms appears to be damaging wind.

Ahead of the line, isolated thunderstorms are popping up across the area. This trend will continue for the next several hours. The SPC mentions in the watch that the area near the Mississippi River and Ohio River should be watched closely for thunderstorms that could produce an isolated tornado.

Thunderstorms are expected to move slightly north of east at 35mph.

If you are going to be out and about this evening, remember that you can always access StormTeam Digital Doppler on your cell phone by going to www.mykfvs.com. If you have a cell phone with a full internet browser (i.e. iPhone), you can access StormTeam Digital Doppler by going to www.kfvs12.com.

Mother Nature's Fireworks

Mother Nature could be bringing her own fireworks for the 4th of July. For some, (me) that might not be bad as there isn't a firework show in downtown Cape Girardeau this year. (I always end up working the 4th of July and usually just go in to the station parking lot to watch the fireworks before Heartland News at 10pm.)

The Storm Prediction Center has all of southeast Missouri, southeast Illinois, western Kentucky, northwest Tennessee, northeast Arkansas, and southwest Indiana in a "Slight Risk" for seeing severe weather.

The below outlook is valid through 7am Sunday.


A warm front will begin to lift northeast through the area later this morning. As it does so, there could be a few isolated strong to severe thunderstorms develop along and ahead of the front. If a strong thunderstorm can develop, it could become a supercell thunderstorm which would be capable of producing large hail. Also, an isolated tornado can't be ruled out along the warm front.

Later today/this evening we will see a cold front pass through the region. Along and head of the front, we expect to see a line of storms develop. The main threat with the line of storms will be damaging winds. Storms are estimated to move east at 30 mph.

Below is a look at the probabilistic damaging winds forecast.


If you are heading out to the lake, to go camping, a picnic, or plan on attending a fireworks display tonight you might want to check the forecast before you go.

Also a reminder... You can access Digital Doppler on your cell phone by going to www.mykfvs.com. (If you have a full web browser on your phone (iPhone, etc) go to www.kfvs12.com.)