WKU Meteorology

Discussion of Mid-South weather and climate and information about the WKU Meteorology program

WKU Meteorology - Discussion of Mid-South weather and climate and information about the WKU Meteorology program

When can we expect the first 90F day in KY?

With winter safely behind us, the next weather-related topic to look forward to is the first 90 degree day of the year. I did some research this afternoon and found that during the last 50 years for Bowling Green, the earliest 90 occurred on 4/10/1995 while the latest was 6/25/2003 with a median date of 6/2. For Louisville during the same time period, the earliest occurred on 4/23/1960 while the latest was 7/4/1982 with a median date of 6/7. So what can we expect this year? Continue reading

WKU Meteorology in the news

My April 12th post titled “Major League Baseball and cold April weather” has attracted some media attention. Jayson Stark of ESPN mentioned my article here (scroll down 2/3 of the way and look under “Cold Spell”). A sportswriter from the Canton (OH) rep wrote an editorial on it here. A cable weather show in Pennsylvania produced a 3 minute segment you can see here (click the green box on the bottom row) that featured my results. I was also linked to the baseball website Hardball Times here. It just shows that you never know what kind of research will get people interested.

2007 Boston Marathon Nor’Easter – Update

Sunday 9:00 pm CDT update: What you see is what you get. No changes. See below for more details. Good luck!!

Saturday 9:00 pm CDT update: No changes to the forecast. See the Friday update for more details. This has been well-modeled from the being and it looks like the low will be centered over southern CT during the race. The heaviest rain should end by early morning but showers will be expected throughout the race. Final update will be Sunday evening. Continue reading

Major League Baseball and cold April weather

The recent record-breaking cold April 6-9 that led to the cancellation of the Cleveland-Seattle series at Jacobs Field has had sportsradio people questioning why Major League Baseball schedules games at cold weather cities without a domed stadium during the first week of April. I decided to analyze the historical frequency of how often cold and/or snowy weather can be expected to occur at six cold weather non-domed baseball cities; Chicago, Detroit, Cleveland, Pittsburgh, Boston, and New York. Continue reading

Sunday blizzard for Northeast?

Storm #1 is currently underway across the central portion of the United States. A couple of lines of thundershowers have moved across south-central KY Wednesday with several inches of snow occurring north of I-80 in the Midwest. For the latest on the severe threat I will defer to the experts at the SPC. Storm #2 is currently over California and will move across Texas and into the Mid-South Friday-Saturday. The models are suggesting this storm will take a dramatically different track from previous runs and signs are pointing to a major Northeast Blizzard for Sunday-Monday. Continue reading

Why is it so cold and how long will it continue?

I’ve been getting this question a lot from my Meteorology students. The culprit for the arctic blast is our very warm March . Whenever a large portion of the U.S. has such warm temperature anomalies, it means that Canada was equally as cold. The zonal pattern that led to the anomalous warmth broke down since a zonal pattern is baroclinically unstable over time. The East Pacific Oscillation (EPO) and North Atlantic Oscillation (NAO) have also been somewhat well correlated since December. Continue reading

Could Easter be colder than Christmas?

There is a good chance that Easter may be colder than last Christmas across south-central Kentucky. The core of the arctic blast that will keep temperatures around 15 degrees below normal through the beginning of next week will move across the area this weekend (Can you believe the 522 dm thickness over Bowling Green??). Temperatures Saturday will only be in the middle 40s across south-central KY and will struggle to reach much past 40 in the north. Easter morning will start with lows in the teens in a few spots across the north and in the middle 20s across the south. But just how often does Easter end up colder than Christmas? Continue reading