The winter storm that hit Kentucky on January 27-28 left thousands of people without power because of all the power lines down. Over 600,000 people are still without power and officials are saying it could be up to two weeks before power is completely restored. Ryanweather has continuing coverage of this event.
Overall, the storm, which hit from Oklahoma to Pennsylvania, left more than 1.5 million people in the dark. In Arkansas, another hard hit state, about 178,000 people are still without power, out of an estimated 300,000. The storm also dumped 4 inches of snow on New York City.
Here are pictures of the effects of this storm:
(Pics courtesy of the Weather Channel)
Astronomers discovered a new planet, called HD80606b, outside our solar system. The whole reason I'm mentioning it is because of it's weather.
The temperatures on this planet are truly extreme: highs can reach 2,240 degrees! When it is closest to the Sun it orbits, it is 10 times closer than when Mercury is at it's closest point to the Sun.
The star is visible from Earth near the Big Dipper. On Feb. 14, HD80606b will travel between the Earth and its star. There's a 15 percent chance that amateur astronomers using small telescopes could see it swing by, obscuring a tiny part of the star.
Full Story Here
Cold weather is on the way for the area as a cold front will move through tomorrow, but Friday is when it will really hurt us, because temps are going to be back in the low 30s and high 20s Friday night and Saturday night. On top of the cold weather, we'll also be getting some rain chances for tomorrow and Friday. Sometime next week, I may decide to have daily blog entries, if I can find the time for it.
The weekly forecast page is currently in a phase of clean-up and redesign, so there will be no forecast this week and possibly next week.
Locally, this week, the weather should be nice as temperatures start to slowly warm up. Highs should range from the mid to high 70s this week with lows anywhere from 50 to 60. The temperatures the past few days have been unseasonably cold on both highs and lows, the average high in Tampa for January is 61 and the average low is 52. We've seen a drop-off of about 10 degrees for highs and a 20-30 degree drop-off for lows depending on where you live in Tampa Bay.
If you have any suggestions for the site, let me know here.
The long awaited state page have arrived! I finally have the state pages up and ready. On the national svrwxcharts page is a drop-down box, using it you can access a page for each state, including the District of Columbia. Each page has weather info for at least one city sometimes more, a radar image, and 1 to 4 links, plus a graphicast if the local NWS office issues one, and sometimes RSS for that location.
If you would like more information for your particular state, or there is an error, please let me know with a comment, as I'm trying to constantly to improve the site.
I'll start this weekly update by mentioning the record low temperatures we've had this week, all of which occured Thursday morning. The lowest recorded temperature for anywhere in the United States was in Prospect Creek, Alaska, with a reading of -80, then there was Snag, Canada with -81.4, and then to top it all off, there was Votosk, Antarctica with a temperature of -129!
The weather this week has certainly been cold and even across the Southeast there has been unusually extreme lows. Parts of Georgia received their lowest temperatures this season. As of January 17th, following are some of Georgia's coldest temps:In Peachtree City there was a low of 14, in Marietta there was a low of 11, in Cleveland there was a low of 6, for a complete list of lows go to NWS Peachtree.
Also, something I wanted to talk about.
Earlier this morning I went to an X-LABS launch at USF.
X-LABS is an educational group of mostly USF students and some non-students, who are working on things like launching weather balloons and then uploading the data to the internet in real-time and they also use GPS to allow real-time tracking on the internet. Once a balloon is launched, chase teams go out and attempt to track down the balloon. They hope that one day they can use the balloons for hurricane research.
Anyone can join and it is sponsored by the West Central Florida chapter of the American Meteorological Society.
More info on the West Central Florida AMS
More info on X-LABS
The Hard Freeze Warning has been cancelled, but there is now a Freeze warning in place of it:
URGENT - WEATHER MESSAGE
NATIONAL WEATHER SERVICE TAMPA BAY AREA - RUSKIN FL
303 PM EST WED JAN 14 2009
...FREEZE WARNING IN EFFECT FOR THE NATURE COAST LATE TONIGHT AND
THURSDAY MORNING...
...FREEZE WATCH IN EFFECT FOR THE NATURE COAST AND PORTIONS OF
WEST CENTRAL FLORIDA LATE THURSDAY NIGHT AND FRIDAY MORNING...
.COLD HIGH PRESSURE WILL BUILD IN OVER THE NORTHERN GULF AND
SOUTHEASTERN STATES TONIGHT. LIGHT WINDS AND CLEAR SKIES WHICH
WILL ALLOW TEMPERATURES TO FALL OFF RAPIDLY AFTER SUNSET TONIGHT
WITH TEMPERATURES DROPPING BELOW FREEZING OVER THE NATURE COAST
AFTER MIDNIGHT THROUGH EARLY THURSDAY MORNING.
FLZ039-042-043-048-151300-
/O.CAN.KTBW.HZ.W.0001.090115T0600Z-090115T1300Z/
/O.NEW.KTBW.FZ.W.0001.090115T0600Z-090115T1300Z/
/O.CON.KTBW.FZ.A.0002.090116T0600Z-090116T1300Z/
LEVY-CITRUS-SUMTER-HERNANDO-
INCLUDING THE CITIES OF...CEDAR KEY...CHIEFLAND...CRYSTAL RIVER...
INVERNESS...BUSHNELL...THE VILLAGES...BROOKSVILLE...SPRING HILL
303 PM EST WED JAN 14 2009
...FREEZE WARNING IN EFFECT FROM 1 AM TO 8 AM EST THURSDAY...
...FREEZE WATCH REMAINS IN EFFECT FROM LATE THURSDAY NIGHT
THROUGH FRIDAY MORNING...
...HARD FREEZE WARNING IS CANCELLED...
THE NATIONAL WEATHER SERVICE IN TAMPA BAY AREA - RUSKIN FL HAS
ISSUED A FREEZE WARNING...WHICH IS IN EFFECT FROM 1 AM TO 8 AM
EST THURSDAY. THE HARD FREEZE WARNING HAS BEEN CANCELLED. A
FREEZE WATCH REMAINS IN EFFECT FROM LATE THURSDAY NIGHT THROUGH
FRIDAY MORNING.
LIGHT WINDS AND CLEAR SKIES WILL ALLOW TEMPERATURES TO FALL OFF
RAPIDLY AFTER SUNSET TONIGHT WITH TEMPERATURES DROPPING BELOW
FREEZING AFTER MIDNIGHT THROUGH EARLY THURSDAY MORNING...WITH
TEMPERATURES BOTTOMING OUT IN THE UPPER 20S.
SIGNIFICANT DAMAGE IS POSSIBLE TO COLD SENSITIVE PLANTS. PLAN TO
COVER OR BRING INDOORS THIS EVENING. PETS SHOULD ALSO BE BROUGHT
INDOORS. ALSO...THIS IS A GOOD TIME TO ENSURE THAT YOUR HOMES
HEATING SYSTEM IS IN GOOD WORKING ORDER. WRAP OR COVER EXPOSED
OUTDOOR PIPES TO PREVENT THEM FROM BURSTING.
RESIDENTS PLANNING TO BE OUTDOOR TONIGHT AND EARLY THURSDAY
MORNING SHOULD PREPARE ACCORDINGLY. WEAR SEVERAL LAYERS OF
CLOTHING...AS THEY WILL INSULATE YOU BETTER THAN A SINGLE COAT OR
JACKET.
ANOTHER COLD FRONT WILL SWEEP THROUGH TH REGION ON THURSDAY. THIS
FRONT WILL USHER IN EVEN COLDER AIR AS A LARGE ARCTIC SURFACE
HIGH PRESSURE BUILDS IN FROM THE NORTH...WITH ADDITIONAL SUB-
FREEZING TEMPERATURE LIKELY ACROSS THE NATURE COAST LATE THURSDAY
NIGHT INTO FRIDAY MORNING. IN ADDITION TO THE COLD TEMPERATURES
WIND IN THE 10 TO 15 MPH RANGE THURSDAY NIGHT WILL SUPPORT VERY
LOW WIND CHILLS ACROSS THE REGION.
RESIDENTS PLANNING TO BE OUTDOOR THURSDAY NIGHT AND EARLY FRIDAY
MORNING SHOULD PREPARE ACCORDINGLY. WEAR SEVERAL LAYERS OF
CLOTHING...AS THEY WILL INSULATE YOU BETTER THAN A SINGLE COAT OR
JACKET.
A FREEZE WARNING IS ISSUED FOR 3 OR MORE HOURS OF TEMPERATURES
BETWEEN 27 AND 32 OVER A WIDESPREAD AREA.
RESIDENTS SHOULD COVER OR MOVE INDOORS ANY COLD SENSITIVE
PLANTS...AND BRING PETS INDOORS THIS EVENING.
A FREEZE WATCH IS ISSUED FOR THE POTENTIAL OF A WIDESPREAD AND
DAMAGING FREEZE WITHIN 24 TO 48 HOURS. DURING THE FREEZE
PERIOD...TEMPERATURES MAY REMAIN BELOW 32 DEGREES FOR MORE THAN
8 HOURS.
$$
Levy, Citrus, Hernando, and Sumter are now under a Hard Freeze Warning.
Low temperatures will be below freezing for the next three days, and from what the NWS is forecasting, Friday should be the coldest night for any of the counties, but Brooksville looks to have the coldest forecast at 23 degrees.
Here is what the NWS is saying:
URGENT - WEATHER MESSAGE NATIONAL WEATHER SERVICE TAMPA BAY AREA - RUSKIN FL 320 AM EST WED JAN 14 2009 ...HARD FREEZE WARNING IN EFFECT FOR THE NATURE COAST LATE TONIGHT AND THURSDAY MORNING... ...FREEZE WATCH IN EFFECT FOR THE NATURE COAST AND PORTIONS OF WEST CENTRAL FLORIDA LATE THURSDAY NIGHT AND FRIDAY MORNING... .A MUCH COLDER AND DRIER AIR MASS IS OVERSPREADING THE REGION EARLY THIS MORNING IN THE WAKE OF A COLD FRONT. COLD HIGH PRESSURE WILL BUILD IN OVER THE NORTHERN GULF AND SOUTHEASTERN STATES TONIGHT. LIGHT WINDS AND CLEAR SKIES WHICH WILL ALLOW TEMPERATURES TO FALL OFF RAPIDLY AFTER SUNSET TONIGHT WITH TEMPERATURES DROPPING BELOW FREEZING OVER THE NATURE COAST AFTER MIDNIGHT THROUGH EARLY THURSDAY MORNING. FLZ039-042-043-048-142100- /O.UPG.KTBW.FZ.A.0001.090115T0600Z-090115T1300Z/ /O.NEW.KTBW.HZ.W.0001.090115T0600Z-090115T1300Z/ /O.NEW.KTBW.FZ.A.0002.090116T0600Z-090116T1300Z/ LEVY-CITRUS-SUMTER-HERNANDO- INCLUDING THE CITIES OF...CEDAR KEY...CHIEFLAND...CRYSTAL RIVER... INVERNESS...BUSHNELL...THE VILLAGES...BROOKSVILLE...SPRING HILL 320 AM EST WED JAN 14 2009 ...HARD FREEZE WARNING IN EFFECT FROM 1 AM TO 8 AM EST THURSDAY... ...FREEZE WATCH IN EFFECT FROM LATE THURSDAY NIGHT THROUGH FRIDAY MORNING... THE NATIONAL WEATHER SERVICE IN TAMPA BAY AREA - RUSKIN FL HAS ISSUED A HARD FREEZE WARNING...WHICH IS IN EFFECT FROM 1 AM TO 8 AM EST THURSDAY. A FREEZE WATCH HAS ALSO BEEN ISSUED. THIS FREEZE WATCH IS IN EFFECT FROM LATE THURSDAY NIGHT THROUGH FRIDAY MORNING. LIGHT WINDS AND CLEAR SKIES WILL ALLOW TEMPERATURES TO FALL OFF RAPIDLY AFTER SUNSET TONIGHT WITH TEMPERATURES DROPPING BELOW FREEZING AFTER MIDNIGHT THROUGH EARLY THURSDAY MORNING...WITH TEMPERATURES BOTTOMING OUT IN THE MID AND UPPER 20S. SIGNIFICANT DAMAGE IS POSSIBLE TO COLD SENSITIVE PLANTS. PLAN TO COVER OR BRING INDOORS THIS EVENING. PETS SHOULD ALSO BE BROUGHT INDOORS. ALSO...THIS IS A GOOD TIME TO ENSURE THAT YOUR HOMES HEATING SYSTEM IS IN GOOD WORKING ORDER. WRAP OR COVER EXPOSED OUTDOOR PIPES TO PREVENT THEM FROM BURSTING. RESIDENTS PLANNING TO BE OUTDOOR TONIGHT AND EARLY THURSDAY MORNING SHOULD PREPARE ACCORDINGLY. WEAR SEVERAL LAYERS OF CLOTHING...AS THEY WILL INSULATE YOU BETTER THAN A SINGLE COAT OR JACKET. A HARD FREEZE WARNING MEANS SUB-FREEZING TEMPERATURES ARE IMMINENT OR HIGHLY LIKELY. THESE CONDITIONS WILL KILL CROPS AND OTHER SENSITIVE VEGETATION. ANOTHER COLD FRONT WILL SWEEP THROUGH TH REGION ON THURSDAY. THIS FRONT WILL USHER IN EVEN COLDER AIR AS A LARGE ARCTIC SURFACE HIGH PRESSURE BUILDS IN FROM THE NORTH...WITH ADDITIONAL SUB-FREEZING TEMPERATURE LIKELY ACROSS THE NATURE COAST LATE THURSDAY NIGHT INTO FRIDAY MORNING. IN ADDITION TO THE COLD TEMPERATURES WIND IN THE 10 TO 15 MPH RANGE THURSDAY NIGHT WILL SUPPORT VERY LOW WIND CHILLS ACROSS THE REGION. RESIDENTS PLANNING TO BE OUTDOOR THURSDAY NIGHT AND EARLY FRIDAY MORNING SHOULD PREPARE ACCORDINGLY. WEAR SEVERAL LAYERS OF CLOTHING...AS THEY WILL INSULATE YOU BETTER THAN A SINGLE COAT OR JACKET. A FREEZE WATCH IS ISSUED FOR THE POTENTIAL OF A WIDESPREAD AND DAMAGING FREEZE WITHIN 24 TO 48 HOURS. DURING THE FREEZE PERIOD...TEMPERATURES MAY REMAIN BELOW 32 DEGREES FOR MORE THAN 8 HOURS. $$
Four Florida counties are currently under a Freeze Watch: Levy, Hernando, Sumter, and Citrus. This Freeze Watch may change to a Freeze Warning as time progresses. Here is what the NWS is saying about the current situation:
URGENT - WEATHER MESSAGE
NATIONAL WEATHER SERVICE TAMPA BAY AREA - RUSKIN FL
353 AM EST TUE JAN 13 2009
...FREEZE WATCH IN EFFECT FOR THE NATURE COAST LATE WEDNESDAY NIGHT
THROUGH THURSDAY MORNING...
.A COLD FRONT WILL MOVE THROUGH WEST CENTRAL FLORIDA LATER TODAY.
IN THE WAKE OF THIS FRONT A MUCH COLDER AND DRIER AIR MASS WILL
OVERSPREAD THE REGION ON A BRISK NORTHWEST TO NORTHERLY WIND FLOW
TONIGHT AND WEDNESDAY. COLD HIGH PRESSURE WILL THEN BUILD IN OVER
THE NORTHERN GULF AND SOUTHEASTERN STATES WEDNESDAY NIGHT WITH
DECREASING WINDS AND CLEAR SKIES WHICH WILL ALLOW TEMPERATURES TO
DROP TO BELOW FREEZING OVER THE NATURE COAST FOR 4 TO 6 HOURS LATE
WEDNESDAY NIGHT INTO THURSDAY MORNING.
FLZ039-042-043-048-132100-
/O.NEW.KTBW.FZ.A.0001.090115T0600Z-090115T1300Z/
LEVY-CITRUS-SUMTER-HERNANDO-
INCLUDING THE CITIES OF...CEDAR KEY...CHIEFLAND...CRYSTAL RIVER...
INVERNESS...BUSHNELL...THE VILLAGES...BROOKSVILLE...SPRING HILL
353 AM EST TUE JAN 13 2009
...FREEZE WATCH IN EFFECT FROM LATE WEDNESDAY NIGHT THROUGH
THURSDAY MORNING...
THE NATIONAL WEATHER SERVICE IN TAMPA BAY AREA - RUSKIN FL HAS
ISSUED A FREEZE WATCH...WHICH IS IN EFFECT FROM LATE WEDNESDAY
NIGHT THROUGH THURSDAY MORNING.
4 TO 6 HOURS OF FREEZING TEMPERATURES ARE EXPECTED OVER THE NATURE
COAST LATE WEDNESDAY NIGHT INTO THURSDAY MORNING WITH TEMPERATURES
BOTTOMING OUT IN THE MID TO UPPER 20S. PRECAUTIONS SHOULD BE TAKEN
TO PROTECT COLD SENSITIVE PLANTS AND VEGETATION. PETS SHOULD BE
BROUGHT INDOORS EARLY WEDNESDAY EVENING.
A FREEZE WATCH IS ISSUED FOR THE POTENTIAL OF A WIDESPREAD AND
DAMAGING FREEZE WITHIN 24 TO 48 HOURS. DURING THE FREEZE
PERIOD...TEMPERATURES MAY REMAIN BELOW 32 DEGREES FOR MORE THAN
8 HOURS.
STAY TUNED TO NOAA WEATHER RADIO OR YOUR LOCAL MEDIA FOR FURTHER
UPDATES.
$$
JCM
I will continue to watch this and update as needed.
For more info go to NWS Tampa Bay
From the floods in the Northwest to the frigidly arctic conditions in Alaska, the weather has definitely been crazy this past week. Across Tampa Bay we can expect below average temps for this next week, and a small chance of rain tomorrow and Monday. Looking past Monday, it will be mostly dry and cool through the week. If any of you have suggestions on how I can improve the site let me know in the comments.
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