Saturday, November 2, 2024

Raindrops + Sunshowers (Elective)

FORECAST:

Sunday (High 76, Low 58): Mostly sunny. Breezy.

Monday (High 76, Low 59): Mostly sunny. Breezy.


EXTENDED OUTLOOK:

Wednesday (High 79, Low 62): Mostly cloudy with a 40% chance of showers/thunderstorms.

Thursday (High 80, Low 61): Partly cloudy with a 20% chance of showers/thunderstorms.

Friday (High 76, Low 60): Partly cloudy with a 20% chance of showers/thunderstorms. 

Saturday (High 72, Low 61): Partly cloudy with a 30% chance of showers/thunderstorms. 

PRONÓSTICO:

Domingo (Máxima 76, Mínima 58): Mayormente soleado. Ventoso.

Lunes (Máxima 76, Mínima 59): Mayormente soleado. Ventoso.


PERSPECTIVA EXTENDIDA:

Miércoles (Máxima 79, Mínima 62): Mayormente nublado con un 40 % de probabilidad de lluvias o tormentas eléctricas.

Jueves (Máxima 80, Mínima 61): Parcialmente nublado con un 20 % de probabilidad de lluvias o tormentas eléctricas.

Viernes (Máxima 76, Mínima 60): Parcialmente nublado con un 20 % de probabilidad de lluvias o tormentas eléctricas.

Sábado (Máxima 72, Mínima 61): Parcialmente nublado con un 30% de probabilidad de lluvias/tormentas eléctricas.

NOTES:

November sometimes brings severe weather, so it is a good time to review safety rules

The National Weather Service in Nashville is holding Weather 101 classes, free to take online. Especially if you've got a kid in your family tree who is interested in learning more about the weather, these are wonderful things. The instructors are really good about spending time and taking questions, explaining everything in a way that is easy to understand. The classes are really aimed more at adults, but if you know somebody of any age who wants to learn about the weather but isn't in college for it, please let them know about these. They are great classes. 


And we are going back on Standard Time. Most clocks on computers and cell phones reset themselves automatically now, but things like weather radios and some cars may need to still be set back one hour tonight/tomorrow morning. 

Some people want Daylight Savings Time year-round, but I'm exactly the opposite: I'd be fine with Standard Time all year long. The switch-up we've gotten used to for so long sort of keeps things interesting, I guess. 

Funny story: I used to have a deaf cat who meowed really loud. (Once in a while she acted like she could hear some things, like gunshots from the woods.) And we lived on a place with a lot of chickens. For some reason, this cat got up when the roosters did to alert everyone to when it was time to get up to go to school. She perched on a dresser and meowed her really loud meow. And she was reliable in getting us up, like even if the power went out and the alarm clock failed, she knew what time it was to get up. And she even adjusted for the weekends. She knew we didn't go to school then. 

So the first time the time changed after she'd developed this habit, she perched up and started meowing exactly one hour early. And after a minute or two, I heard across the trailer, "Matt . . . please come reset your cat!"

DISCUSSION:

As we approach 1 PM, skies are overcast in Cullman. The temperature is 66 degrees. The dewpoint is 64 degrees, making the relative humidity 94%. Winds are from the East at 5 miles per hour. The pressure is 30.27 inches and holding fairly steady.

It is overcast and 66 degrees in Jasper. The dewpoint is 64, making the relative humidity 94%. Winds are calm at the moment. The pressure is 30.26 inches and steady. Just glancing at things, I note the fog brought visibility down to a quarter-mile at times this morning. And the Low in Jasper was 57.

It is mostly sunny in Haleyville with a temperature of 73 degrees. The dewpoint is 64, making the relative humidity 74%. Winds are Southeast at 7 mph. The pressure is 30.28 inches/1024.3 millibars and falling slowly at the moment, but has been waffling up and down slightly, to the point I think it makes more sense to just call it steady. 

It is partly cloudy and 73 degrees in Huntsville, mostly sunny and 67 in Nashville. 

And a cat named Salem is trying to paw an ice cube out of a coffee mug. Why such attempts fascinate him remains a mystery to me. Once in a while he has to stop and wash his paw because it becomes wet and cold. 

Moving right along to the weather maps. 





The cold front that brought us the rain showers mainly on Halloween night is now down around Dothan and stretches back through Mississippi and all the way through Texas and Oklahoma, also through Southern Georgia and into the Atlantic. 

And this crazy cat has managed to fish the ice cube out of the cup. Now he has no idea what to do with it, but is cautiously sliding it around and trying to grab it, almost like he wants to put it back in the cup. Ah well, such silliness is small potatoes compared to a lot of what is going on in the human world these days. 

You'll have to follow the link to get the joke. Otherwise skip over the foolishness . . .  

I think Rick and Bubba had a point, saying Tucker could have just gotten clawed up by one of the dogs, and that after any unexplained attack, it doesn't make a lot of sense to walk outside in your underwear without waking up your wife. It's too bad Sigmund Freud is not around to comment on such things these days, and everybody thinks he was just a dirty old man. I have to say, what I know of his observations sure made a lot more sense than guys being able to blame their late-night sins on succubi back in the dark ages. Which is about what this stuff is starting to sound like. If there are more details to Carlson's story, I'm guessing it'll be a lot like a "scary part" my uncle wouldn't let us watch from Ghostbusters way back in the day. Parental discretion advised for that last link, unless you let your kids watch stuff like Family Guy or Hazbin Hotel . . . in which case it won't bother them at all. 

I know I should get on to the weather, but I swear, some of this stuff coming out in the media these days is kind of hard for me to believe. It reminds me of a dumb moment of my own, when we had a multiple choice word bank and a really laid-back American History teacher at one school I went to. I helped him realize that his laid-back attitude was causing his students to just not care and to put random guesses on the quizzes. 

One day he burst out laughing while grading papers and said, "Matt . . . Matt . . . since when'd they move Nauvoo up on Smith Lake?"

That got some people's attention even though he was just letting us goof off and basically do nothing. 

Then he told the class, "The question was: (BLANK) is on Smith Lake. And he put Nauvoo." After laughing a bit more, he said, "That's . . . one of the more amusin' ones . . . that I've read."

Several fellow students expressed their disbelief and contempt at the way I'd filled in that question from the word bank. But a lot of them had come close to being that silly on their own papers. Because the coach who taught that class told us after he finished grading, "Y'all are just guessin' at this stuff. I went over all of the papers, and it's . . . some o' the dumbest answers I ever seen in my life. Y'all are just guessin', ain't really payin' attention, and I'm fixin' to start cuttin' down on it."

And there are some news stories that make me feel about like that coach/history teacher must have felt when he saw that buffoonish answer on my paper. 

I had to stop my cat from swatting another ice cube out of the cup, since it has a drink in it now. And from eating on a sandwich instead of his cat food. This latest type of Meow Mix I tried is not proving to be popular. It's the original flavor. So be forewarned if you've never tried it. Some cats will find it so bland they'd rather try a peanut butter sandwich. 

By the way, what's up with putting jelly on a peanut butter sandwich? I never did learn to like that. It would be funny to see what a cat thought of the taste of jelly though. 

A lot of this is completely irrelevant to the weather, but come on, is this not a breath of fresh air compared to all the drama in the other media right now? Here we can throw our heads back and laugh at Tucker Carlson getting attacked by a "demon" while his wife was blissfully asleep . . . and he didn't even bother to get the ghost gal's phone number (or ouija board code or whatever). The fact this demon didn't wake the dogs up is one more reason I think this evil spirit was a product of a guy's imagination. Loneliness, or being the only one of a couple awake, can do wonders. By the way, did I mention I got a visitation from Pamela Anderson the other night . . . she was feelin' feisty . . . so I've got claw marks too . . . but now Halloween's over. 

So yeah, I was never seriously considered for broadcast meteorology . . . 

And credit where it's due again, that lady does have an interesting cookbook out, for anybody who's more dedicated than I am to controlling their waistline. 




We're going to have another cold front moving through the nation's midsection. Which will bring thunderstorms - some possibly severe - and a risk for flash flooding to the Plains and parts of the Midwest over the next two or three days. 



Tomorrow will be mostly sunny around here, kind of breezy thanks to a pretty tight pressure gradient. High pressure is influencing our local weather, while low pressure is influencing their weather out West. Winds could gust up to about 20 mph at times. Winds will be out of the South/Southeast. The High tomorrow should be about 76-77 with a morning Low of about 58 or 59. 



Monday also looks mostly sunny and breezy. High temperature should be about 75-77 range, the Low about 58-60 range. 



Tuesday we're looking at a High in the upper 70's, Low near 60. Clouds will increase, and by Tuesday night a lot of us will see some rain showers, though they should stay scattered for the most part, about a 40% chance of any one spot getting wet. 

By the way, if you're looking for a fistfight that day, you might find one without even having to go to a bar and agitate somebody. But if you want to enhance your chances . . . hmmmmmmm . . . I think I'll let folks figure that out for themselves. 



The GFS is showing our moisture levels decreasing on Wednesday as the front runs into the ridge we have in place. 


The ECMWF shows the rain chances still going strong at Noon Wednesday, and I think this is more reliable. So going to include a 40-50% chance of rain for Wednesday. High should be in the upper 70's again with a Low in the lower 60's. 



By Thursday nobody can miss that tropical cyclone being shown coming up into the Gulf of Mexico via the GFS guidance. Many eyes have been on that feature in the Caribbean for a while now, and it is close to becoming a tropical cyclone. Exactly where it will end up and how much it will develop is an unknown for now. 


But I'm paying attention. The ECMWF is also showing a similar scenario. And this has been a really rough hurricane season. So to be on the safe side, I'd keep an eye on this. 

Locally it looks like a High near 80 for Thursday, Low near 60. Rain chances drop back to about 20%. 



Friday we likely stay rain-free around here. High should be in the mid-70's and the Low near 60. Might keep a 20% chance of rain in there, close call. 



Then next Saturday, with another cold front passing through, looks like our High temperature will drop to 70 or so, the Low staying near 60, with about a 30% chance of rain showers. 



Here's a better look at that front coming in next weekend. 



Subtropical Storm Patty is affecting the Azores Islands this weekend and will be down to a remnant low by the time it gets to Portugal and Spain on Tuesday. 

This is not to be confused with the Crabby Patties that some restaurants are serving now, sparking great debates over whether it's true to the cartoon or not. Well, you know, gotta' have something to fight about after Election Day is over with. And I really hope to see a bloodbath over who is doing Krabby Patties right. I'll be singing, "Under the sea . . . under the sea . . ."

There is another tropical storm in the Pacific, but it is also going to die out and pose no threat to land. 

Meh.

Not worried about that low pressure system near the Greater Antilles either. 



The one area of concern in the tropics right now is an area of low pressure/disorganized showers and storms over the Southwestern Caribbean. It will likely become a tropical depression within the next day or two, and a Hurricane Hunter Air Force aircraft is scheduled to fly into it to take observations tomorrow. It will continue to cause heavy rains over the land that is near the SW Caribbean, like Jamaica, Hispaniola, and Cuba. (And Nauvoo . . . they moved it down there now . . . look out!) And while nothing looks immediately alarming for the Gulf Coast, we do need to watch it. the GFS was showing a landfall of a tropical cyclone somewhere near Biloxi next Saturday, and the ECMWF shows the tropical cylone drifting more toward South Texas and Mexico. 



Then if you take a look at the tropical models, it's even more clear that the computer guidance is all over the place for now. 


The good news is that the models currently suggest it will stay at tropical storm strength instead of hurricane strength. It would likely run into a lot of shear and dry air. That might keep it from becoming a hurricane. 

In the same breath, I don't want to give anyone a false sense of security. We have seen several systems this season intensify rapidly, and in the case of Hurricane Milton, I remember a time when most people thought it wasn't going to develop after all, think it was when the disturbance was over near Eastern Mexico. That mentality may not have lasted long. It was probably only one full day or less. But I think a lot of times, with the instant mentality these days, we jump the gun and speculate too much when the truth is that we just need to wait and see what happens. Trained people flying an Air Force Hurricane Center are going to go in there tomorrow and get observations from this thing. If necessary, they'll assign it tropical depression status at the National Hurricane Center. But let's be careful and not jump the gun either way, thinking worst-case scenarios or just blowing it off as a junk system. 

Basically all we know right now is that it's likely to be a tropical depression within the next day or two and that its trends need to be monitored as it moves into the Gulf of Mexico. 


Our rainfall amounts around here will probably stay less than a quarter-inch, on average. 

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It was a mostly overcast day, periods of light rain in Cullman with a High of 73 and a Low of 66. And I said I didn't have the energy to...