Tuesday, April 25, 2006
April Ends with Uncertainty
Matt Ross @ 12:30 AM
Forecast
Today we will see increasing cloudiness with showers and possibly a thunderstorm developing in the late afternoon.
High temperatures will be in the low 70s. Most of the heavier rain will be confined to the far southern burbs and points south. Rain will end later in the evening with slowly clearing skies and a stiff northerly breeze pushing temps down to near the 40 degree mark. Temps will rebound modestly on Wednesday with highs 5 to 10 degrees below normal in the low 60s. The forecast through the weekend comes with higher than average uncertainty. Right now it looks like a mix of clouds and sunshine with highs in the 60s and 70s. The best chance of rain is later in the weekend. Thursday looks to be the nicest between today and Sunday with sun and highs in the low 70s.
Currently April is running almost 5 degrees above normal. Sunday closes out the month, which should finish 3 to 4 degrees above normal, likely falling just shy of April 2002 for 2nd warmest April in the last 10 years.
A golfer enjoys the warm weather, surrounded by fallen cherry blossom petals, at the Chartwell Country Club in Severna Park, MD. Photo Credit: CapitalWeather.com Photographer, Kevin Ambrose
Other Significant Weather Events
Outside of our relatively tranquil weather over the past week, three significant weather events were occurring elsewhere. A massive snowstorm in the Northern Plains, a tornadic outbreak in Oklahoma, and a historical tropical cyclone near Northern Australia.
The most recent of the three was yesterday during a severe weather outbreak in Oklahoma as a tornado touched down in El Reno completely destroying a building at the airport. Two noteworthy things about this tornado were that it was spotted by so many people from distances up to 15 miles away and that it was anticyclonic in nature. Anticylonic tornadoes are only a 1 in 100 event. The name indicates that they rotate clockwise instead of counterclockwise like 99% of tornadoes.
Yesterday, Severe Tropical Cyclone Monica stayed far enough offshore of the Northern Australia coast near Darwin to spare the type of potential damage that was predicted by many as it strengthened to near record levels. Currently Monica has weakened to a 65km/h Tropical Storm. This rare storm occurred just a month after powerful Cyclone Larry hit the east coast of Queensland, Australia.
Late last week over 50" of snow fell in parts of the Black Hills of western South Dakota as a rare spring blizzard affected the Northern Plains. A vigorous upper level low pressure system was responsible for the heavy precipitation. Today conditions there remain wintry with occasional snowshowers and temps in the 30s.
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