Suncoast Stormwatch

With this week's forecast, it looks like West Central Florida might have broken out of winter's  chilly grip, for now at least. Daytime highs will be in the 70s, with night-time temperatures only in the mid to high 50s, and maybe the 60s, in some locations.

Rain will be possible from Wednesday through Saturday.

NWS Ruskin had their open house yesterday from 10am to 2pm. The weather was perfect, with the temperature in the mid 60s, and not a cloud in the sky.  They had a pretty decent turnout, with 180 people showing up to have tours of the office and see a weather balloon launch.

As the weekend comes to a close, and February nears it's end, New York City is covered in snow. Friday was only the 4th time in the past six years that public schools in the city were closed.
 
A whopping 20.9 inches of snow fell this week in Central Park, causing a tree branch to fall on and kill a man. One of the good (and bad) things about living in Florida is not having to deal with snow.

w Yorkers are busy digging themselves out of all the snow (and trying to warm back up from the cold temperatures that came with the snow), Floridians have had to cope with below average teperatures in the 40s and 50s during the day and high 20s to low 30s at night (we don't get snow, just rain).

This week, we'll have a very slight warm-up, with temperatures in the 60s during the day, but dipping into the low 40s and high 30s. We will also have a high chance for rain on Tuesday.

Below are some more pictures that my friends in NYC sent me from around their apartment. (Click for larger image)

Just wanted to put this out there for anybody looking for 2010 high school weather camps. The first four camps I'm going to mention all pay you to participate.

There will be several wx camps this year across the country. The NOAA Center for Atmospheric Sciences (NCAS) is hosting three camps.

The first camp I'll mention is the one in Jackson, Mississippi. The camp is five days, and focuses on the fundamental elements of meteorology. Having participated in the camp last year and going back this year as an assistant, I can say that it is a very good camp.

There are two other camps, one in Washington D.C at Howard University, and one in Puerto Rico at the University of Mayaguez. 

As I have not been to either of the other camps, I can't really give a substantial review  but I will tell you about them. 

The camp at Howard University is a two week resident camp. It is really in-depth. The camp is focused on the fundamental aspects of meteorology, as well as deeper study of atmospheric sciences. A unique feature of the camp is the forecasting contest.   

I don't really know all that much about the camp in Puerto Rico. It has a big emphasis on tropical weather. To attend this camp, you have to be fully bilingual.

That pretty much sums up the NCAS camps. There is another NOAA organization, ISET, that is hosting a weather camp as well. 

The NOAA ISET camp is in North Carolina. I was recently accepted for the camp this summer. They don't have much information available, other than the fact that it is more of a climate camp than a weather camp.

Links to more information about each camp are below.

NCAS Camps (The application process was changed this year. Instead of having a separate application form for each camp, they have it set up so you can be considered for all three of the camps.)

ISET Camp

There is also a weather camp at Penn State. (You have to pay for this camp.)

I have a couple things to announce this week.

First, and most important, the Texas drought is officially over.

Second, the National Hurricane Center is using a new hurricane wind scale this year.
Links: 1 (story), 2 (video)

Coming back to West Central Florida...

We will have a chance for rain tomorrow, and then maybe again on Wednesday.

Daytime temperatures will be in the low 70s tomorrow, cooling down into the 60s for the rest of the week, and then possibly back in the 70s next week.

Also, this may not matter much to people, but this is the 50th Suncoast Stormwatch Weekly Update.

Big news coming from Suncoast Stormwatch..... Check back soon for details.

As everybody knows by now, or should know anyway, there have been some pretty cold days in the Northeast lately.

Here is a picture (click for larger image) that a friend in New York sent me yesterday. This icicle was measured to be 1 yard long. It was 4 inches at the top and 2 inches in the middle.

When the icicle was found, it was 28 degrees outside. Here is a link  to current New York City weather information from the National Weather Service.

(The link is to mobile.weather.gov. In my experience, New Yorkers tend to browse the Internet from their phones more than regular computers. Mobile.weather.gov works for regular computers as well as phones.)

 

Ok, to start things off, I think I should mention that there was  snow in 49 of the 50 states on Friday, with Hawaii being the exception.

Looking at the forecast for the upcoming week, I have some good news: It is going to warm up. Daytime temperatures will be in the 50s and maybe the 60s in some cases. Looking at night-time temps, we can expect lows in the 30s.

Locally,  we'll have temperatures in the 60s to start the week, and then in the second half of the week, we should see things warm into the 70s. Beyond that, it looks like temps will drop back down into the the 60s.

There will also be a chance for rain each day, with tomorrow and Tuesday seeing the best chances.

Care should be taken with the forecast more than a week out, so be sure to watch for updates to the forecast.

Now for a recap of NWS Tallahassee's Weather Fest 2010:

The Weather Fest started off at 10am, with events scheduled throughout the day. I was on the campus of Florida State University, because that's where NWS Tallahassee is located. 

There were booths set up in the parking lot, along with a few demonstrations.

One, in particular, which was for was for CoCoRaHS, which stands for Community Collaborative Rain, Hail and Snow Network, had participants throw water balloons at a target. The water would fall into a rain gauge, and the demonstrator would then show the person throwing the water balloon how to properly measure rainfall. CoCoRaHS is a national network of volunteer observers who report the daily rainfall at a specified time. They are hoping to have 20,000 active observers by the end of this year.

Other events included a talk about El Nino and it's impact on the Southeast, an extremely interesting talk about climate change and Climategate, a severe weather simulation of the Enterprise, Alabama tornado from 2007, and another extremely interesting talk about the history of people trying to control the weather, among other things. 

 The weather this week willl be comfortable, with temperatures in low to mid 60s for the first half of the week, and then 70s for the second half of the week.

As a reminder, Florida's Severe Weather Awareness Week 2010 started today and lasts through the 30th. Tomorrow, in Brooksville, there is going to be a severe weather preparedness seminar at the Emergency Operations Center. More Info

After the cold week we just had, I'm glad to say that it is warming back up.

The weather should straighten itself out this week, with temperatures in the low to mid 70s, and a chance of rain in the middle of the week.

Two events I think I should mention:

Florida's Severe Weather Awareness Week is coming January 24th through the 30th.
Click Here For Guide

As part of the activites during the week, there is going to be a severe weather preparedness seminar at the Emergency Operations Center in Brooksville.
More Info

No, I'm not making this up.

There was a mixture of snow/sleet in West Central Florida late last night and early this morning as a small amount of moisture moved into the area along with dropping temperatures.

We haven't had snow or sleet in West Central Florida since 1996, and it hasn't  snowed in the Tampa area since  January 17, 1977, when WTVT meteorologist Roy Leep was the only local Tampa area meteorologist to predict that it would snow. Tampa had a reported snowfall of .2 inches that day.

We've also seen a few temperature records broken this week across the area. Back in December, we were complaining about record warmth, and now we're going to have near record cold over the weekend. Compared with the winter weather woes of Europe, we really don't have much to complain about. The situation could be much worse.

The forecast for this weekend calls for near record temps again. Next week though, it looks like things should start to warm back up. We could be back to normal by the middle of the week.

Here are some pictures of the sleet that I took at my house. (It was on the roof and car)