Tis' the season to start traveling...It always seems that the roads, skies, and trains start to get a little more packed this time of year. Everyone is headed to grandmother's house for this or that.In an effort to make traveling a little less stressful, we have put together a page on KFVS12.com that gives you all kinds of information. Here are a few of the resources on the page.- Road condition phone numbers for Illinois, Kentucky, Missouri, and Tennessee
- Links to road condition websites
- Links to airlines' websites
- Airport delay information
- Weather forecast information
Follow this link to the page or just go to www.kfvs12.com/roadconditions.
Did you catch Heartland News at 10pm, 10:29pm style tonight? Did you notice anything new or different on the StormTeam 7 Day Outlook?Last night and again tonight I busted out my traditional turkey mascot on the StormTeam 7 Day Outlook.In case you missed this year's versions...Tonight's:
Saturday Night's:
Do you have a favorite version?By the way, I did drop temperatures Thursday afternoon by a couple of degrees. I still think there is a chance for a few snow flurries, especially in southern Illinois.Looking just beyond the next 7 days, computer models are strongly suggesting a big chunk of cold air coming down out of northern Canada for the start of December. Stay tuned for more on this...
We are getting to the time of year where everyone likes to ask me what it is going to be like for the holidays. Unfortunately, it is a little early to be talking about Christmas, New Years, etc., but I can talk about Thanksgiving.Even though it is still 4 1/2 days away, I can show you some of the data we pour through in the StormTeam Weather Center. Below is a snapshot of what the NWS's global forecast model is suggesting. There is a lot on the graphic, but let me help you digest it.
To begin with time runs from right to left on this specific program (called BUFKIT). The red line is the temperature at the surface. The colored vertical bars are precipitation. (Green-rain | Blue-snow | Orange-sleet) The gray splotches are where the model predicts there will be clouds.The first thing that probably jumps out at you is the green bars. That is indicating the chance of rain we have in the forecast for Tuesday. The rain will develop ahead/along a cold front that is going to clip the area. It isn't anything to be too concerned about. The model is putting out only 0.11" of rain through the day.Take a closer look at the red line. Note how it is showing temperatures in the upper 40's for highs behind the cold front Wednesday.Keep following the line to the left. It brings in high temperatures of only the lower 40's for Thursday (Thanksgiving). Just below the red line notice all the clouds it brings in with the system for Thursday. That is what will likely keep temperatures feeling cold that day. Last night the models were still indicating highs in the upper 40's to lower 50's. I figured we'd be colder than that with cloud cover so I went with a high of 45° with the idea I would probably be dropping the temps more for this evening's forecast. After seeing this, I will most likely be doing so.With all the low level moisture in the form of clouds, notice how the model is trying to drop some snow flurries or some sleet to the area. There is very little moisture. When you add up with the model is spitting out, it comes to a whopping 0.008" of liquid. That would equate to a few flurries. I don't think it is entirely out of the question we could see a few flurries floating through the air that day. Typically with this type of system, the cold air in place, and all the low clouds we often do see some "snow flurry-age".As I like to say, stay tuned...
Some of you may know that I am big fan of traveling, especially if it involves airports.I was searching around on the internet today and came across a press release from Google that really caught my attention.Google is offering free wifi at 47 select airports around the country. The company is calling this their "Holiday Gift".This is a great deal if you are going to be spending time in airports. Plus, if you are traveling over the holidays, there seems to be more delays in the air traffic system so this should at least help keep you entertained.Typically, you can expect to pay $8-$15 per day of internet access in airports.Here is the list of airports included in the "gift".- Austin (AUS)
- Baltimore (BWI)
- Billings (BIL)
- Boston (BOS)
- Bozeman (BZN)
- Buffalo (BUF)
- Burbank (BUR)
- Central Wisconsin (CWA)
- Charlotte (CLT)
- Des Moines (DSM)
- El Paso (ELP)
- Fort Lauderdale (FLL)
- Fort Myers/SW (RSW)
- Greensboro (GSO)
- Houston (HOU)
- Houston Bush (IAH)
- Indianapolis (IND)
- Jacksonville (JIA)
- Kalamazoo (AZO)
- Las Vegas (LAS)
- Louisville (SDF)
- Madison (MSN)
- Memphis (MEM)
- Miami (MIA)
- Milwaukee (MKE)
- Monterey (MRY)
- Nashville (BNA)
- Newport News (PHF)
- Norfolk (ORF)
- Oklahoma City (OKC)
- Omaha (OMA)
- Orlando (MCO)
- Panama City (PFN)
- Pittsburgh (PIT)
- Portland (PWM)
- Sacramento (SMF)
- San Antonio (SAT)
- San Diego (SAN)
- San Jose (SJC)
- Seattle (SEA)
- South Bend (SBN)
- Spokane (GEG)
- St. Louis (STL)
- State College (SCE)
- Toledo (TOL)
- Traverse City (TVC)
It doesn't get much better than this in early November.At 1pm CT, temperatures are in the lower 70's across southeast Missouri, southern Illinois, western Kentucky, and northwest Tennessee. Even in to Indiana temperatures are in the lower 70's.The one trade off for the warmer temperatures is the winds have picked up. They are out of the south/southwest around 15mph with gusts over 20mph.Now that we are enjoying the weather, everyone likes to ask me how much longer it is going to last. For that, lets take a peak at the 6am run of the NAM forecast model from NOAA for Cape Girardeau, Missouri.Below is a look at some of the data the model spits out. What you see is the temperature plotted by the red line. Precipitation (in this case rain) plotted by the green bars. The grey/white shaded boxes are where the model thinks clouds will be located.
With this particular display, time reads from right to left. (I know, backwards. I didn't write the software. haha)Notice that the temperatures being put out by the model are already a little low. It is showing that we should be topping out at 70° today, but at 1pm the temp at the Cape Girardeau airport is 72°.Going strictly by this model, it appears that temperatures will remain in the upper 60's to lower 70's for highs through the next couple of days.You can also see that the model is suggesting a little bit of rain moving in late Tuesday morning. However, when you add up the amount of rain it is suggesting, it is pretty light. The model is only putting out 0.074" of rain through 7pm Tuesday.This is only a look at one of the forecast models. I typically look at 4-5 models for a "normal" forecast. I will look at more if we have something big going on in the weather world (for example a snow/ice storm).
The rain keeps falling across southeast Missouri, southern Illinois, western Kentucky, northwest Tennessee, and northeast Arkansas. All indications are that the rain will continue until early evening.Some radar estimates are showing as much as 5" of rain in some locations of southeast Missouri. In the past 24 hours (7am Thursday - 7am Friday) we have officially picked up:- Poplar Bluff, Missouri Aiport - 2.55"
- Cape Girardeau, Missouri Airport - 1.61"
- Paducah, Kentucky Airport - 0.89"
- Carbondale, Illinois Airport - 0.83"
Take a look at the following forecast models. The green bars indicate how much rain will fall in a given period of time. Time runs from right to left.First here is a look at the NAM forecast model. It is indicating an additional 0.60" of rain for Cape Girardeau.
Here is a look at the GFS forecast model. This model is indicating an additional 0.69" of rain for Cape Girardeau.
I'm kind of amazed that the models have such consistency. Usually models will be a little more off.
An update to my previous post regarding the cold weather...First of all, it is going to be cold tonight around southeast Missouri, southern Illinois, western Kentucky, northwest Tennessee, southern Indiana, and northeast Arkansas. Frost Advisories and even Freeze Warnings are in place overnight for parts of the area.Here are my forecast lows for tonight. Note: The 31 for Cape Girardeau is for the airport south of town. In town, temperatures will probably drop off to around 34 or 35 degrees.
Lets look back at the record low high temperatures for the last couple of days. Previous record listed on the left and this year's temperature listed on the right.
- October 14: 56 (1986) | 53 (2009)
- October 15: 58 (1977) | 52 (2009)
- October 16: 52 (1966) | 50 (2009)
- October 17: 52 (1976) | 54 (2009)
We have set new records for three of the four days. (New records indicated by bold font.)Temperatures are forecast to move back to the 60's and even lower 70's by Wednesday.
