3 quick weather links on a cool Sunday morning/early week back in SW Virginia
Three quick links for a cool early June Sunday morning in Southwest Virginia:
Spring 2012 — March, April, May on the meteorological calendar was the warmest on record at Roanoke (dating to 1912) and at Blacksburg (dating to 1952). While April and May averaged above normal in temperature, it was really the extreme March that was the key in the spring warmth record.
The National Weather Service at Blacksburg will be looking into whether or not a tornado touched down in Botetourt County on Friday, based on a photograph by Botetourt View reporter Cathy Benson.
And finally … the Virginia Tech storm chasers had a good day Saturday tagging intense thunderstorms in southeastern Colorado and the Oklahoma Panhandle. We’re expecting to leave Guymon, Oklahoma, where we’ve been four straight nights, for eastern Kansas and a possible heightened risk of supercells and perhaps a few tornadoes on Sunday. At this late hour … I’ll leave it to fellow chase trip co-leader Chris White to provide some words and pictures from our day.
June 3, 2012 - 12:18 AM
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39 degrees on a beautiful morning here in Woodlawn! Quite chilly.
Kings Local (Wytheville) Weather had 41 this morning.
I had 44 at my house in Wytheville.
41 up here on the ridge this morning-it was 47 on Sat. morning. Sun was out this morning and it was looking like it was going to be a great day. Now it has clouded over and we are having a light shower.
Clarkdocvet, are you sure that you have an accurate thermometer? That seems particularly low, but maybe your home is like King’s Weather Station in Wytheville, one of the coolest spots around. Reason I commented that way is because I was at Draper early, and they only got down to 48, and a guy from Wytheville claimed that he did not get lower than that, either, but maybe he awakened after 7:30 AM (I saw him about 9 AM, after I had already played the front 9). It was a balmy 56 just before dawn at my place. I wonder if wd remained at/above 60*. More in separate comment.
Probably at least one other blogger has already made a comment about this, but in case not … the NRV between Draper and at least the west side of Christiansburg got a late-morning surprise, at least for folks who watched WDBJ7 yesterday evening. The “big sex symbol” Robin Reed claimed that only folks in far SW Virginia might get an early (as in before noon) shower today. All those locations got rain, and I am not talking just drizzle or lonely raindrops.
Once in a while I mark my golf scorecard with the weather conditions. On the first hole I printed “48* and 100% sun, warming to the 60s.” All that occurred, but I had to add a few words. It was completely sunny through the tee shot on 15th hole, but by the time I hit my 2nd shot it had very suddenly clouded up …. as in completely clouded over. As I was hitting my tee shot on #16, it was raining lightly. I was able to putt out on 16th (a Par 3) in light rain, but then I chose to wait under a tree because the wind gusted and steady, moderate rain was falling. Played most of 17th in rain, but by the time I got up to the green the rain had stopped and the sun made one more “guest appearance.” 18th hole was sunny but much cooler and windier. I got the clubs put away PDQ, went into the clubhouse for just a few minutes, and by the time I came back out the clouds, wind, and rain had all returned! Temp probably got up to 65* on the 15th tee, but it was back to 57*, cloudy/rainy and blowing when I left. It rained on I-81 the entire way from Exit 89 to Exit 118. Which is where the sun appeared. Got to Salem/Roanoke and it was 73 and sunny, although very low humidity and a breeze.
I think I had about 4 “wardrobe” changes during the round of “goof.”
Kevin Myatt Weather Wizard Professor, I am glad that you had a very good day in Oklahoma and environs yesterday. And I hope that you are getting some memories that you will treasure. But you have had the misfortune to be away when (at least) the Roanoke Valley has had a multitude of fabulous weather days. Yesterday and today are two more. Sunny (here), breezy, low humidity. This is one of the nicest stretches of weather for this lateMayearlyJune timeframe that I can ever remember. Yesterday’s high at RRA was a stupendous 72, a full 8 degrees below the norm. And I doubt that we are going to get above 77 today. But it won’t matter if it does, because the air is so dry that I think the “feels like” temp (or “heat index”) is actually LOWER than the air temp. For your sake, I hope that it continues past the day that you return here.
Everybody needs to remember this spring, 2012. Reason being, we got extremely lucky we didn’t have a repeat of several years back when it got hot and everything budded and bloomed. A perfect set-up this year for a big freeze and major damage to fruit and crops. 2007[I think] had almost a 100% fruit crop failure.
Does anyone know when the Hot weather is going to rear its ugly head again? I am just enjoying this spring like weather so much here in June. Hope we can get through this summer with minimal 90 degree days!
50 degrees here this morning w brisk winds all day hi yesterday was 66 degrees & today’s hi was73 degrees w/ a breif shower @ 10 A.M. lower dew points make all the difference….
Batch of nasty looking stuff moving due east north of Little Rock and south of St. Louie now. Calling car Joe. Where are you. How about checking in on these storms if you’re working. Wonder if KM is following them? Doubt it, cause sight distance would be limited and hard to get on them.
Kevin, have you folks ever been able to see smoke in the sky from the enormous wildfire in New Mexico? Network News just reported that it is the biggest one ever in N.M., 241,000 acres have burned, bigger than the area of the city of Dallas.
RESEARCH PROJECT TIME: I must admit that I did another one. Looking back to May 2007, for both Roanoke and Blacksburg. How many of the 31 months during the past 5+ years for the May-Sept. timeframe have been warmer than normal? Amazing. I think I threw out a guesstimate of 80 or 85% were warmer than normal a few days ago. For a change I was very accurate. 27 of the 31 Mays-Junes-Julys-Augusts-Septembers starting in May 2007 have been warmer than normal in ROA, and 26 of 31 for Blacksburg. The four ROA months that were cooler than normal were: 7-2007 (-0.5), 7-2008 (-0.1), 8-2008 (-0.6) and July 2009, a -2.9, the only truly cool month in Roanoke in this study!! May 2008 was the additional cool month for BBurg, a -0.4. Going in the same batting order as the ROA cool months, BBRG was -1.2 in July 2007, then -0.5, -1.4 and -2.7 in that July 2009.
And among the months that were warmer than normal, for ROA, 11 were at least 3 degrees warmer than normal, and two were ridiculously hot, August 2007 the epic warmest month ever in ROA, a +7.4 degrees, and June 2010, a +6.2.
Just arrived 2am Central at Wichita after chasing then being chased by storms. Not our best day. Trip home likely begins Monday.
Not that anyone cares, but my math was off in that “research project.” I intended to go back and include 2006, which would have made 31 months, but did not. Oops. May and Sept (Sept 2006 was the other truly cool month in this study at more that 2 degrees cooler in both cities) 2006 were also cool months, thus lowering the %age of cool months in the most recent 31. 2006 was not a “bad” summer, with only August being well above normal (a +3-something in both cities).
In relation to wdbrand’s comment about the freeze. In our part of SW VA there is virtually no fruit to be had this summer. The pears and cherries had set on the trees prior to our 24 degree freeze and now they are no more. The apples were still blooming when this occured. I heard they are declaring some counties in upper East TN as disaster areas due to the freeze we had and this will allow some federal help. I do not think the problem is widespread for the Virginia but our corner did not make it.
Will not update blog today or possibly Tuesday due to travel and relatively quiet weather. Hope to resume normal blogging by mid to late week. Blogging while storm chasing is proving very difficult for me. Hope to get some photos up at some point. We’ve seen and experienced lots of neat things, weather-related and otherwise.
Yes,Doug,I have two different thermometers at my house in use,so the 39 was accurate as fer as i know. Where I live in Woodlawn,I am ALWAYS 4-8 degrees colder than forcasts or local reports. Been living there for 11 years and have gotten used to being worried about frosts when neighbors a mile away are sleeping soundly!!
Michael Hoback, thanks for your information about your region’s bad news about the fruit crops. I wish I could send you a personal e-mail. Condolences about the fruit trees.
Very bizarre day for Hokie Storm Chasers. We were eating at Lambert’s Cafe in Sikeston, Mo., when supercells developed just north and east — 1 of which carried a tornado warning. So we cut dinner short, got some takeout boxes, and tagged amazing supercell structures into the evening.
I hope to have some picts/video up of this at some point.