Weather! Rainy days, cooler week ahead

There’s another rainy and windy midweek period ahead, but we get a gorgeous weekend in return!

October 18, 2011; 1:33 PM • by Weather Dan

Greetings from Birmingham, Alabama, where I’m attending the 36th National Weather Association Annual Meeting.

It’s been a busy week so far. The student session, focusing on skills to get a job and networking opportunities more than hardcore meteorology, was Sunday. Yesterday, the first day of the general session, spent time talking about severe weather events (tornadoes, flooding, and snow – oh my!), decision support services, and new technologies.

The big event, however, is going to be the Town Hall taking place at 7:45 tonight. Two hundred residents who were in central Alabama during the April 27 outbreak have been selected and will be given clickers to provide live response to questions about the event prepared by social scientists. A panel of meteorologists, emergency managers, and other officials will provide commentary, and the event will be streamed online. I’m going to be in the audience tonight, and am very much looking forward to it. It will be an incredibly eye-opening event for everyone, and will likely challenge a lot of the assumptions held by the meteorological community about the public, and hopefully some in the other direction, too.

There are some high clouds across the region today, thanks to a nearly stationary frontal boundary set up over the northern half of Virginia.

Temperatures will climb back to near 80 today before clouds start to build in this evening. We’ll see some precipitation starting this evening and into the overnight hours, with a low in the low 60s tonight.

Intermittent rain showers continue tomorrow morning, tapering off in the afternoon as an area of low pressure moves off to the north. Temperatures will get back to 70 tomorrow afternoon but they will plunge on Wednesday evening following the passage of a cold front. Plan on lows near 50 Wednesday night.

Wind speeds pick way up behind the cold front, too, as a large area of low pressure deepens over the Great Lakes. Expect some wind gusts to near 30 miles per hour, as highs struggle to reach into the low 60s. Lows Thursday night fall into the upper 40s.

We’ll clear out by the weekend, as high pressure moves back into the region. Even if temperatures will be a bit cooler, we’re looking at yet another gorgeous weekend. Highs will stay around 60 all weekend long.

October 18, 2011 1:33 PM 0