StormTrack Blog

Normal High & Low:

May 1        66° / 43°

May 31    76° / 54°

Record High:  95°,   Record Low:  25°

Normal rainfall:  3.14″

Sunrise & Sunset:

May 1      6:32 a.m. / 8:33 p.m.

May 31   6:04 a.m. / 9:03 p.m.

58 minutes of daylight gained

The first weekend will feature some showers and thunderstorms, but we close out April with a dry and warm final day.

This month did have some soaking rainfall.  Final precip tally for the month is 4.69″, which is about an inch and a half above normal.

If you don’t want to worry about frost and freezes, the good rule of thumb is to wait until Memorial Day to plant stuff (which isn’t always possible).

Here is a link to final spring freeze dates.  It includes the average date, as well as some anomolies as well.

http://www.erh.noaa.gov/cle/climate/info/spring_thaw.html

This weekend has and will continue to feature a major outbreak of severe weather across the Southeast.  On Saturday over 50 tornadoes were reported resulting in at least one dozen deaths.  In addition, over 300 reports of severe weather blanketed the region.   Here is a map of the severe weather reports for Saturday:

This is the most potent spring type storm so far this season featuring many of the ingredients necessary for a severe weather outbreak.  Ample gulf moisture, instability, strong upper level winds and wind shear (a change in wind speed or direction) were all present for this outbreak of severe storms.

The rain this weekend will help wash the tree pollen out of the air.  Levels in the past few weeks have been on the high side (including the past few days).  Pollen levels should drop to the moderate category.  Unfortunately, the levels will rise back up to high next week.

A storm from the western USA will track across the country and move through our area this weekend.

Showers should begin Friday night or early Saturday.  We will see some off & on rain Saturday, with steadier showers Saturday night into Sunday.  The storm will depart Monday, taking the rain with it.

Computer model forecasts suggest the rain potential could be 1 to 2 inches.  We will continue to update things as the storm approaches.

The University of Wisconsin – Madison’s CIMSS department has released the following hi-res satellite pictures of the volcanic eruption in Iceland.

The first picture shows the volcano (yellow box), and the smoke (black lines shown by the arrows).  The second and third pictures are of the ash plume, taken on April 17 & 19 respectively.  Upper level winds have spread this ash across parts of Europe.  The presence of this ash in the atmosphere has been responsible for grounding flights across Europe.

The pollen levels the past few weeks have been horrible for those suffering from allergies.  Tree pollen has been quite high so far this spring.

Levels today and tomorrow will be in the high category, and will jump into the very high category for late-week.

The primary pollens the past few days have been birch and maple.

All of the weather team is now on Facebook!

Robert’s Page

Mike’s Page

Chris’s Page

Tara’s Page

Highs will hit or break 80° in most areas.  Normal high is in the upper 50s.

Here are some area record highs for April 15:

• 79°  Morenci
• 81°  Defiance, Lima, Montpelier, Napoleon
• 82°  Findlay, Norwalk, Tiffin, Upper Sandusky, Wauseon, Kenton
• 84°  Adrian
• 85°  Toledo Express Airport