So, Where's Fall?

For anyone who has followed me from my Wunderground Blog days until now, you'll notice there's a definite down tick in posts around summertime. It's not that I don't like the summer, it's just that... it's boring. Most days are warm, little forcing to push instability in to thunderstorms here in Ohio, and it's generally just a dead period for interesting weather.

I have an obvious bias toward winter weather, but I also love storms too. We don't get those in the summer. Instead, those are reserved for spring and fall. Well, we hit meteorological fall about 26 days ago here in Central Ohio, and since then there still hasn't been much to write about. We've seen six days of rain, none with storms, and a backwards temperature trend that has many, even heat lovers, longing for cooler temps and falling leaves.

The first couple days of September struggled just to hit 60°! It felt great and some trees started to respond with quick changes in color. I had many people ask me, "is this it? Did we turn a page on the calendar and just like that... fall?" No, unfortunately, I had to let everyone know this would rebound. And it sure did. It gradually warmed to where it is today, looking at our 6th straight day of 90° heat. Yuck. Before September we had three 90° days all year. Yesterday was also our second warmest day of the year at my house (91.9°).

So here's some good news. Tomorrow is our last hot day for a little bit. A cold front that's been stalled in the middle of the country for some time will finally move east, followed by a reinforcing shot. That should give us some comfortable low 70s and high 60s temps for a few days.

But just a few.

After some up and down next week, we'll settle in to another warm pattern for the second week in October with a massive ridge taking up most of the US:

This means it's going to be a very slow start to the cold weather season. In fact the pattern doesn't lend to any major cool downs in the next 16 days. That's pretty unheard of. While we saw a couple 80° days last October, we never saw long stretches like this. Those were usually in response to the upwelling of warm air ahead of a cold front. This is a block. Period.

I usually like to see 3-4 big storm systems push across the country before we settle in our winter pattern, with the arctic jet finally dropping far enough south to give us our final cool down. We haven't even seen one of these storms. 

Before you panic, this says nothing about the upcoming winter. I have a pretty good confidence early on that we could see cold and snow this winter, unlike the past few.

I'll be posting more frequently now that we're heading in to the cooler months!

Irma

Over the past couple weeks the US has now been slammed with two cat 4 hurricanes, Harvey and Irma. Harvey's lasting impact will be the historic flooding caused it Houston when the storm became stationary. While many large cities will come away with scars from Irma, I believe this storm should be remembered for the devastation it caused in the Florida Keys.

My wife and I visited the Keys last year for the first time and it became an instant favorite of mine. The islands that make up this area are some of the most beautiful in the world. Of course I had to take my drone with me to see some of the sights and the Keys did not disappoint.

Duck Key, FL

Few reports have come out of Islamorada, the town where we stayed. Many storm chasers who rode the storm out in Key West and made their way back to main land have said the area is devastated. I can only hope their reports are exaggerated.

Starting tomorrow through Thursday we should see the effects of Irma's remnants pushing through Central Ohio. We won't see anything crazy, just a good soaking and maybe some small gusts.

Central Ohio Missed Out on the Eclipse

As we got closer and closer to the peak of totality here in the Columbus area, you just saw this area of clouds getting closer and knew... we were going to miss out on this once in a lifetime event. But even without a great view of the eclipse, we saw some things around here that were cool anyway.

First thing being the visible satellite. This was really cool to see the shadow of the moon create a brief night fall over the clouds:

The next thing was literally cool... the temperature drop as the sun became obstructed. As the NWS noted in a Twitter post, areas near the Ohio River where there were less clouds saw up to a 7-8 degree drop. I noticed more of a 3-4 degree drop in Canal Winchester due to the cloudiness. But you could definitely see the drop:

 Almost right as soon as the eclipse started (1:04pm) you notice that dive. Temps didn't even start to recover until a full 30 minutes after the peak.

So, it may not have been as breath taking as some of the spots in the path of totality, but a pretty nerdy event for us here in Central Ohio none the less! Now it's time to get ready for 2024.

Cloud Cover for the Eclipse?

In case you haven't heard from the news, social media, friends, family, the neighbor, or anywhere else... the eclipse is happening tomorrow. Here in Central Ohio we will not see totality, but we should see 85%-88% coverage depending on where you are. But will we even get to see the eclipse? Will there be any cloud cover?

For about the past week it's looked promising for us here in Central Ohio. A developing system to our west looks like it should hold off cloud cover until after the eclipse tomorrow. Here's a look at the NAM model of cloud cover depiction tomorrow afternoon around 2pm:

Indiana is not looking good. But luckily we should be mostly sunny tomorrow.

I don't have eclipse glasses or anything for tomorrow, I'm sure I'll see plenty of pictures online. I'm a little more interested in the effect it'll have on our temperature from 1-4pm tomorrow! I'll be sure to post the results from my weather station.

As The Fog Breaks

Last night saw a couple very localized showers dump on parts of Franklin County, which lead to some Friday morning fog. Even though we didn't get any rain here in Canal Winchester, we saw some of that fog. And it was a perfect chance to take the drone up for a look:

Fog video with my drone has been a fun challenge for me since I started flying last year, but this was by far my best video. I'd taken some decent pictures in the past, but usually the fog was very deep and I couldn't get high enough for some good views. This morning was perfect. The fog was just beginning to break when I sent the drone up, and by the time I reached 300ft, you could see the clearing to the east and the heavier, deeper fog to the west. It really was a beautiful morning, and if I didn't have to go to work I would have flown even longer.

This evening I got 1" of rain from a pretty heavy shower, so will I get the chance at more fog video tomorrow morning?