Tuesday, September 14, 2010

Under Pressure

A shallow cold front pushed through the region early Tuesday, causing patchy drizzle across the Mountain State. Otherwise Tuesday was mostly sunny & dry. You might have noticed that dew point values bottomed out recently. Dry conditions, low dew points and the slightest breeze usually increase potential for wildfires. In fact, Gov Manchin recently issued a ban on certain types of fires for the Eastern Panhandle of West Virginia (click on http://www.wvforestry.com/ for more info). The dry & warm trend will continue Wednesday. We’ll see a sun/cloud mix with temps touching the low and even mid 80s Wednesday. So use caution when burning and as always, think twice before flicking that cigarette butt!

Strong low pressure will cross the Great Lakes and Central Appalachians Thursday afternoon/evening. Expect rain, a few severe thunderstorms and strong winds to develop ahead of the front. Most of my weather models agree that there will be a strong pressure gradient with that front for Thursday. That means breezy conditions across the entire region. Models also agree on the timing and track of that front for Thursday. It’ll be a fast-moving front and much of the heaviest rainfall will occur across northern PA on this one. Here in WV, we can expect around half inch of rain to fall Thursday through early Friday. There’s a good chance for downed trees, power outages and other wind-related damage to occur especially towards eastern parts of our state. Temps Friday will hold in the mid to upper 70s.

High pressure and slightly cooler temperatures are on tap Friday through the weekend. So an interesting last half of the work week will settle down just in time for a dry & sunny weekend. With clear and calm conditions overnight Friday, bet on dense fog on Saturday morning. That souldn't do much to effect those of us en route to Milan Puskar stadium Saturday morning. Once the fog burns off we’ve got sunshine & blue skies on tap for the rest of the weekend. Expect a temperature of 72 at Kickoff against the Terrapins is set for noon!