Weather! Hot, sticky weekend ahead
It’s been a busy past few days; we’ve had some exciting thunderstorms, and the National Weather Service has announced some interesting climate information related to this Spring.
It’s been a busy past few days; we’ve had some exciting thunderstorms, and the National Weather Service has announced some interesting climate information related to this Spring.
Twitter user @Nicholkola was able to capture this image Thursday evening:
If you look above the the rainbow across the center of the image, you can see the faint outline of a double rainbow, caused when light is refracted not once, but twice, within a rain shaft. It’s hard to make out in the picture, but the colors in the faint outer rainbow are actually reversed compared to the inner one.
Regarding this Spring, the National Weather Service announced that the average temperature for the period of March – May 2010 was the warmest for this period on record. There is one important caveat that the NWS also points out: relative to other sites in the area, the location at Richmond International Airport has consistently been recording warmer nighttime low temperatures over the last 10 to 20 years. This has been attributed to expansion at the airport, and an increase in concrete and asphalt surfaces near the instrumentation. These surfaces keep nighttime temps milder than they would be otherwise, and since nighttime lows are half of the average temperature, this can have an impact on climate records at the site.
Tuesday also marked the beginning of the Atlantic hurricane season. Be sure to check out my most recent Ask Weather Dan where I discuss this hurricane season and where you can share your memories of years past in the comments.
As for this weekend, Friday marks yet another hot and humid day. Temperatures will again top out near 90 degrees, meaning you’ll get another sticky day for your excursion to the Greek Festival, First Fridays, Innsbrook After Hours, or any other of the numerous events happening around the area. The heat and humidity mean there’s another chance for evening popup showers and thunderstorms, though the risk compared to Thursday remains relatively small. Temperatures Friday night drop into the low 70s.
The pattern continues into Saturday, where – surprise! – another hot and sticky day is in store. A weak frontal system passing through the area won’t bring any relief, but will contain more energy to initiate storms. Highs in the low 90s will prevail, and we’ll have another chance of strong to severe storms into the evening hours. Low temperatures Saturday night again only fall to near 70.
A stronger cold front finally brings some relief to the heat on Sunday, as high temperatures only make it into the mid 80s on Sunday. The cold front again brings some atmospheric instability with it, and the chance of thunderstorms and rain showers sticks around for one more day. The cold front passes through the area by Sunday night, and low temperatures fall into the mid 60s.
Cooler and drier weather takes over for the beginning of next week. I’ll have your next forecast on Monday. Enjoy the weekend!
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Weather Dan
Dan Goff is now a two-time former Richmonder, having departed the River City yet again in favor of southwest Virginia, where he is working on degrees in geography and meteorology at Virginia Tech. Have a question about the weather or weather-related phenomena?
Notice: Comments that are not conducive to an interesting and thoughtful conversation may be removed at the editor’s discretion.
Hooray for hot and sticky weather!! And too cool about the top rainbow being reversed. I didn’t notice that until you pointed it out.
The folks at the airport do not readily accept the premise that airport temperature differences have been “attributed to expansion at the airport, and an increase in concrete and asphalt surfaces near the instrumentation.”
Verbatim, from a veteran airport staffer: “Pure BS to me since there has been no “concrete and asphalt” surfaces added “near” this site. The site is the same as it was in 1981 (when the fire fighting station was built). It was surrounded by grass then and is now.”
The airport would also like to note, for the record, that most expansion has been vertical, with the airport’s structural footprint remaining very similar to that from many years ago.”
Perhaps the prevailing westerlies have brought a little more heat to the airport from the substantially expanded CBD, courtesy of the I-64 corridor.
For the record, here’s the full next of the NWS statement:
WITH AN AVG TEMPERATURE OF 61.5 F…SPRING 2010 RANKS AS THE WARMEST ON RECORD AT RICHMOND…BREAKING THE PREVIOUS WARMEST SPRING SEASON SET BACK IN 1945 (61.3 F). FOR AVG TEMPERATURE…ALL 3 MONTHS WERE ABOVE AVG…WITH 2 OF 3 MAKING THE TOP TEN LIST: APRIL RANKING AS THE 4TH WARMEST (62.2 F)…AND MAY AS THE 8TH WARMEST (70.4 F).
***OF NOTE…THE OFFICIAL CLIMATE STATION FOR RICHMOND (THE AIRPORT) HAS SEEN A SIGNIFICANT UPWARD TREND IN MINIMUM TEMPERATURE OVER THE PAST 10 TO 20 YEARS…POSSIBLY DUE TO AIRPORT EXPANSION AND URBAN HEAT ISLAND INFLUENCES (THIS TREND HAS GENERALLY NOT BEEN SEEN AT SURROUNDING RURAL SITES). SINCE MINIMUM TEMPERATURE ACCOUNTS FOR 50% OF THE EQUATION FOR AVG TEMPERATURE…THIS TREND IS SIGNIFICANT. STILL…THE AVG HIGH TEMPERATURE FOR THE 2010 SPRING SEASON WAS VERY WARM (73.3 F)…AND RANKS AS THE 3RD WARMEST ON RECORD BEHIND 1977 (74.9 F)…AND 1976 (73.8 F)).
Rather than airport expansion, I’d wonder if an increase in air traffic over the last 30 years might be partially responsible?
Why does the NWS feel the need to yell all of their statements and forecasts? Can someone go over there and hit the caps lock button for them?
An increase in air traffic? Airport stats (passengers, cargo, and operations) are posted here:
http://www.flyrichmond.com/Load.php?Content=Statistics
The year-end reports show a >30% decrease in annual operations from 2000 to 2009. Keep in mind, too, that operators tend to retire fuel inefficient aircraft from their respective fleets.