3:45pm Weather Update

After all of the rain this morning, skies are starting to clear across the area. In fact, it is pretty nice outside! At 3pm CT, the temp in Cape Girardeau is 63°.

Our next chance for rain arrives Thursday. The Storm Prediction Center has portions of southeast Missouri, southern Illinois, western Kentucky, northwest Tennessee, and northeast Arkansas under a "Slight Risk" for the time period 7am Thursday - 7am Friday.

Right now, I wouldn't worry too much about the threat of severe weather Thursday.

11am Weather Update

As of 11am, the rain has taped off in southeast Missouri. There will continue to be a few waves of showers with a few embedded thunderstorms pass through (south to north) the afternoon.

According to the SPC, there is a chance for a few severe thunderstorms as they have put parts of southeast Missouri, southern Illinois and all of western Kentucky, northwest Tennessee, and northeast Arkansas under a "Slight Risk" through 7am Sunday. (see image below)

It appears the main threat will be hail in a few of the thunderstorms.

By the way, due to the heavy rain overnight and the threat of scattered showers/thunderstorms through the rest of the day today's KFVS12.com baseball WebCast of UT-Martin vs SEMO has been postponed until Sunday. The time of the game is yet to be determined. (It will depend on if and how many games they are able to get in today at Capaha Field.)

Temperature Contrast

Take a look at the temperature contrast across the state of Missouri. Below is a surface observation map centered on Evansville, Indiana. All of the readings were taken at 2:00pm CT. (Click on the image to see a larger image.)

It is currently 62° in Cape Girardeau, Missouri. Where as in Columbia, Missouri it is 39° and in Sedalia, Missouri it is 33°. To say that we are on the warm side of the storm is an understatement.

Now you know why the National Weather Service is calling for snow around the St. Louis area. Below is the snowfall forecast from the St. Louis NWS through Sunday morning. (The forecast was made Friday morning.)

11:20am Weather Update

As expected, it appears that the threat for severe weather will stay south of the southeast Missouri, southern Illinois, western Kentucky, northwest Tennessee, northeast Arkansas area. Here is the latest Day 1 Outlook from the SPC.

There is a good chance of several strong tornadoes from northern Louisiana (Shreveport/Monroe) over towards Jackson, Mississippi.

One thing that is becoming increasingly popular is "virtual storm chasing". (I'll have to write a blog post only about this later on.) Here is a good website to watch chasers as they maneuver around storms. They have webcams/video cameras attached to their dashboard pointing out the window and have the video streaming live to the internet.

12:45pm Weather Update

The SPC just updated their Day 2 Outlook which runs from 7am Friday - 7am Saturday. They have parts of southeast Missouri, southern Illinois, western Kentucky, northwest Tennessee, and northeast Arkansas under the "Slight Risk". (see below)

Note the "Moderate Risk" area. It generally runs from Memphis south to just north of Jackson, Mississippi. If you are headed that direction, watch out for some big storms Friday night.

I think we might not get too much in the way of severe weather around the "Heartland". Often times in these situations, storms that develop south towards the Gulf Coast "rob" the energy to pop storms. However, it does appear that we could get some decent rainfall.

Another Sign

Found an interesting article tonight regarding carriers of international phone calls. An internet VOIP company, Skype, is now the largest provider of international voice calls.

TeleGeography estimates that Skype international calls topped 33 billion minutes of use in 2008.

This news shouldn't be surprising to "techies" and even the general public is starting to take notice.

The telecommunications industry is in the middle of a huge paradigm shift. Telecommunications businesses (telephone, television stations, radio stations, satellite tv, cable tv, etc) that haven't taken notice will be seeing a decline in their business over the next 5-15 years.

4:40pm Weather Update

A Severe Thunderstorm Watch is in effect for all of southeast Missouri and northeast Arkansas. The watch is in effect until 9pm CT.

It looks like the line of storms that moves through the area will have the main threat of damaging winds and heavy rain.

Re: Is It Going to Blow?

As I mentioned back on Saturday, January 31, geologists were warning that volcano Mt. Redoubt could erupt. Turns out they were right. There was an eruption recorded earlier this morning.

Follow the latest by visiting the Alaska Volcano Observatory.

You can take a look at Mt. Redoubt on two webcams setup by the AVO.

• Webcam located 7.5 miles from the summit crater
• Webcam located 45 miles away

Mt. Redoubt is located 110 miles southwest of Anchorage, Alaska.

According to Wikipedia, Mt. Redoubt erupted in 1902, 1966, and 1989. The eruption in 1989 threw volcanic ash to a height of 45,000 feet.