Nonsense
Posted by Ryan
On Wednesday morning, a thunderstorm erupted over Amarillo in the mid morning amid cloudy skies. The sun never came out with showers and storms in the area for the entire day, which led temperatures to remain a lot cooler than anticipated. The nearest anyone got to the correct high was The Weather Channel, and they were 11 degrees too warm. The daily high on Monday in Amarillo was a paltry 77 degrees. Things bounced back to 89 on Tuesday, but that bizarre looking number on Monday really stuck out. The Weather Channel, more for their near perfection on the other verifying times, ended up with the top forecast.
Actuals: Monday - .24 inches of rain in thunderstorms, High 77, Low 65
Tuesday - .31 inches of rain in thunderstorms, High 89, Low 66
Grade C
Morgantown, West Virginia to Amarillo, Texas
Posted by Ryan
Today we embark on a 1,378 mile road trip from Morgantown, WV to Amarillo, TX. We'll be taking it easy though, making the trip in three days at a fairly comfortable pace in covering roughly 460 miles a day. And away we go!
DAY ONE
We head out of Morgantown northwards towards Pittsburgh, but we'll make a west on I-70 before we reach the metropolis. A cold front pushing through the region will fire most of its activity off towards the east during the afternoon hours. There is a slight chance of a lingering shower along it during the morning hours as we continue westward, but things will dry and clear out as we continue our way westward into OH. Good weather should greet us for the rest of the day as we push into Indiana, finishing up at Terre-Haute, which is near the IL border.
DAY TWO
Weak high pressure over the area will make for a fairly nice morning with some patchy light fog perhaps breaking up shortly after sunrise. We continue our jaunt down I-70 towards St. Louis. The cold front that moved through the region the previous day will keep the main concentration of shower and storm activity off towards the south over the TN and Lower MS Valleys. A weak disturbance along the tail end of a boundary lifting back over the Central Plains will sprout scattered shower and thunderstorm activity over much of the Plains states. We'll be pulling into Joplin, MO, found near the KS/OK border by the late-afternoon hours while the skies cloud up. Some showers and thunderstorms are possible late evening into the overnight hours, hopefully they don't keep us awake. We only have one more day to go!
DAY THREE
A few straggling showers are possible over the Ozarks during the morning hours as the disturbance shifts northeast and dissipates overnight. The tail end of the cold front continues to camp out over the TN and Lower MS Valleys, keeping the diurnal thunderstorm activity south of our route. Models have been spinning up an area of low pressure along the Gulf Coast and by Wednesday, it could possibly develop into a tropical system as it shifts westward towards LA and far eastern TX. This focus of moisture southeast of our route will keep precip activity fairly isolated as we make our way past Tulsa and Oklahoma City and onto I-40 towards the TX Panhandle. Most of the afternoon and evening activity will be found over the Four Corners region as monsoonal thunderstorms ignite once again over the Rockies. A couple stray thunderstorms might find their way down towards Amarillo by early evening, but we should beat them to the city.
Amarillo, Texas
Posted by Ryan
At 1053pm CDT, the temperature in Amarillo, TX is 79 degrees under fair skies. A few thunderstorms rumbled near the area earlier today as a stationary front sits north of the region. Monsoonal moisture will continue pushing over the Four Corners region While the tail end of the stationary boundary continues to sit over the Red River Valley. However, the front looks to break up as southerly flow increases over the High Plains late Monday into Tuesday and the strong high pressure to the north weaken and shift eastward. This will push additional thunderstorm activity into portions of the High Plains to the Central and even Northern Plains on Tuesday. Thunderstorms will probably be more concentrated in the Panhandle regions of OK/TX on Monday than Tuesday, but both will see chances of wet weather and even a shot of a strong to severe storm traverse the countryside. Tuesday will see a slight uptick in temperatures and humidity as well.
Monday: Scattered thunderstorms during afternoon and evening, a couple strong storms possible. High 90, Low 66.
Tuesday: Isolated thunderstorms. High 92, Low 67.
TWC: Monday: Scattered thunderstorms. High 88, Low 66.
Tuesday: Isolated thunderstorms possible. High 89, Low 65.
AW: Monday: Some sun with thunderstorms expected. High 91, Low 67.
Tuesday: Scattered thunderstorms over region. High 91, Low 66.
NWS: Monday: Some scattered thunderstorms. High 89. Low 67.
Tuesday: Slight chance of showers and thunderstorms. High 92, Low 66.
WB: Monday: 30% chance of shower/thunderstorm activity. High 89, Low 67.
Tuesday: Early AM showers. High 92, Low 66. (Hmmm numbers look familiar)
Some of our friendly neighborhood thunderstorm activity continues to camp out over NM this evening. Tomorrow will see this activity push closer to the city, but will it make a direct hit?
