THE WEEKLY - July 29 - August 4

It's been a while since I've posted THE WEEKLY for one reason only: it's been really boring. Since my last post I've seen 0.68" of rain at my house, and most of Central Ohio hasn't seen much more than an inch. The one exception, as you'll see below, is an area in northeastern Franklin County where heavy rain did fall recently. Other than that? It's been average to below average temperatures, and dry conditions.

AHPS Precipitation Analysis for past 14 days

The Columbus airport has reported 4.60" of rain this month and that seems excessive. Especially when you see that the rest of Franklin County has been well below that in the past two weeks.

This week will hopefully give us a little more rain to close out the month, and bring a little more green to the lawns.

The Euro total precip model doesn't think we'll get a ton, but the hope is that most of Central Ohio sees 0.5" to 1", with the possibility for more in some places further south:

Euro rainfall model

Not only are we in a bit of a rain drought, but the summer months have put us in a Severe Weather drought as well. The last Severe Thunderstorm Watch we had was May 22nd in Franklin County. The last Tornado Watch was all the way back on April 3rd, although we did have a Tornado Warning in Columbus on May 15th. I don't see that drought coming to an end anytime soon. We're in between our severe seasons of Spring and Fall, so I doubt we see another watch for at least another month.

Later this week starts August, which is probably one of the most boring weather months of the year for us. For 2012-2017 we have seen exactly one Severe Thunderstorm Watch in Franklin County in the month of August. Even with us being in a more active pattern, I don't think that trend will change this year.

How much long until we start talking about snowfall maps?

THE WEEKLY - July 8-14

Believe it or not, my lawn is starting to get a little crunchy. Even though we just went through an impressive heat wave, we also just had our rainiest month of the year too. This past week we saw just a little over a tenth of an inch, which has definitely left neighborhood lawns on the dry side.

It looks like the next week won't offer much help for our lawns, as we only have rain the forecast one day, and that would be Tuesday:

Unlike with previous frontal boundries, we're actually set up for a favorable thunderstorm potential on Tuesday. The front will be moving in to Western and Central Ohio right around the peak of heating, probably 2-4pm. This won't be a high shear environment, so don't expect any tornadic cells.

After Tuesday? A brief cooldown to the low 80s followed by the heat again. Luckily I don't think we'll see any dewpoints touching 80 degrees like we did last week.

It's getting in to the dead of Summer, where we probably won't see much severe weather for the foreseeable future and warm temps throughout.

THE WEEKLY - July 1-7

It's officially a heat wave here in Canal Winchester today, as we've had three straight days of 90° temperatures. Officially at CMH it's only two days as they only hit 89° on Friday, but I'm sure everyone around Columbus won't get too technical about it. It's hot. It's been hot. It'll be hot for a while.

We're going to be in the 90's all week. I still think the best chance we have of breaking the streak may be tomorrow as a weak boundary tries to spark showers and storms in the afternoon:

The cloudiness and showers could be our only chance to stay in the 80's until Friday when more showers and storms move in to end the heat wave.

I think July 4th will be our hottest day of the week. Right now it's looking like we'll be back in to the mid 90's with mid 70's for dewpoints. It'll be disgusting, and with it being a holiday I think we have a good chance at getting a heat advisory or even excessive heat warning that day.

But hold out, by next weekend there is relief. Not only will we drop back in to the mid to upper 80's, but lower humidity!!

The Euro thinks we could see Td in the 50's! That sounds amazing right now:

It's 6 days away, so until then... stay cool.