monsoonmartin

It was 15 degrees when I made my way in to school this morning, and later today the temperature will get up to a balmy 33.

It’s damned cold.

For the past week or so, I’ve been tracking the potential for a Nor’easter in our area this weekend.  Here are my thoughts on this weekend’s weather and beyond…

Friday 12/17: Partly cloudy and breezy; less frigid.  High 36, low 23.

Saturday 12/18: Partly cloudy initially; becoming overcast.  There is the chance of snow late Saturday night into Sunday as a Nor’easter chugs up the eastern seaboard, but right now my call is no snow.  It looks like the system will drift out to sea so that precipitation will only graze Virginia and Maryland.

Sunday 12/19: Mostly cloudy and breezy with the aforementioned tiny chance of snow (but as noted above, my call right now is no snow).  High 34, low 23.

[I will send out another update if my thinking changes on the weekend event...]

Monday 12/20: Partly cloudy, windy and colder.  High 31, low 18.

Tuesday 12/21: Clouds mixed with sunshine; a chance of snow showers late.  High 36, low 25.

Wednesday 12/22: Generally overcast and quite windy, with sustained winds above 20mph and strong gusts.  High 35, low 26.

Thursday 12/23: Partly cloudy and still somewhat windy.  High 39, low 24.

Friday 12/24: Increasing clouds with flurries or snow showers possible late.  High 39, low 25.

Saturday 12/25: Sunny and clear; a bit milder.  High 44, low 33.

Sunday 12/26: Sunny and clear; unseasonably mild.  High 46, low 36.

Beyond: Highs in the upper 30s and low 40s through the beginning of January; no real chance of wintry precipitation.

As always, stay tuned…and have a Very Merry Hoffmas!

Monsoon

First, let me get this out of the way: I have just been informed that “The Hasselhoffs” has been pulled by A&E (they haven’t used the word “cancelled,” but really, that’s what is happening).  Thanks go to Sue Fineman for ruining my damn day.

The first two half-hour episodes aired Sunday 12/5 to apparently disappointing ratings (718,000 for the first episode; 505,000 for the second one), so A&E has no plans to air the remaining 10 episodes that were produced this past spring and summer.  I cannot deny that the show was a putrid mélange of show-biz clichés, ham-fisted reality-show scripting, and was made almost unwatchable by Hasselhoff’s two screeching, shiftless daughters, Hay and Tay.  But there was potential in this show, if only because of its title subject.  I mean, this is David Friggin’ Hasselhoff, folks.  You know what?  I can no more.

But despite this programming travesty, this capricious and hair-trigger decision on the part of shortsighted A&E execs, the weather goes on.

The next two weeks or so should be interesting: fluctuating temperatures, high winds, rain, ice, and snow.  Here are the details…

Weather narrative: A nice-sized storm this Sunday will give us nearly all rain (and few, if any, travel woes), despite some models that were suggesting our first measurable snow earlier this week.  Rolling in behind the moisture will be the coldest temperatures of the season so far (and really, winter hasn’t even begun).  We won’t see freezing (looking up from below) until Thursday or maybe even Friday.

Next good chance of frozen precipitation is Sunday 12/19 into Monday 12/20; stay tuned.  Look for a bit of moderation thereafter.

Beyond the forecast: More of the same here, with highs in the low 40s and lows around freezing.  Precipitation is possible for 12/25 into 12/26, but I think it would be in the form of rain…

Monsoon

Hey all,

Just wanted to alert you to some heavy rain coming to our area.

Tuesday 11/30 will be overcast with the high climbing to the low 50s by mid-afternoon.  Expect some drizzle and showers by late morning, followed by steadier rain developing in the early evening and night.

Temperatures will be nearly steady overnight into Wednesday, when rain could be heavy at times.  Look for the heaviest precipitation throughout the morning and early afternoon Wednesday.  It's going to be really windy, too.  And we could even get a heavy thunderstorm or two--rare for 12/1 to say the least.  Flood watches have been posted since we could get as much as 2.5 inches (perhaps more) in some places.  This event will taper to showers and drizzle by early evening; temperatures will fall precipitously through the night.

Thursday will be much cooler and breezy with a high in the low 40s and an overnight low in the mid 20s.  More of the same on Friday and Saturday.

Keeping an eye on a potential for snow on Sunday 12/5, but that's sketchy right now. 

[On 12/5 at 10pm, A&E's new reality series "The Hasselhoffs" will debut.  I will be live blogging during the show, so be sure to join me here for feverish chatter and breathless Hoff-worship!]

...and by the way, here's footage of The Hoff's triumphant "Baywatch"-themed return to "Dancing With the Stars" for the finale...

Next week will be quite cold with highs not even making it out of the 30s.  Snow on the 12th or 13th?  Stay tuned...

Monsoon

Let’s get this out of the way: Prince David of Hoffston was the very first participant voted off “Dancing with the Stars” earlier this week.  Bad because I would have liked to see him exhibit some more of his stilted gyrations and manic facial expressions—and I think the world is poorer for his going. 

Silver linings: the real ballyhoo begins in December with the premiere of his A&E reality show.  And his early departure means I never longer have to watch the putrid DWTS again…

Anywho.  The weather – it’s a season of change, so I thought I’d give you my latest thinking…

Friday 9/24: sunny to partly cloudy and continued unseasonably hot; somewhat humid.  High 93, low 66.

Saturday 9/25: sunny, breezy and pleasant.  High 82, low 53.

Sunday 9/26: cooler with periods of clouds and a few passing showers, but not nearly a washout.  High 73, low 55.

Next week: rather rainy.  Rain Monday, showers and thunderstorms Tuesday, showers on Wednesday.  High all three days will be in the mid 70s.  Clearing and seasonably cooler on Thursday and Friday with highs just in the upper 60s.

Next weekend: Saturday looks nice; Sunday looks rainy.

Monsoon

My good people,

Before I get to the weather, allow me to indulge in a bit of brief Hoff-related chitchat.  In point of fact, David Hasselhoff is poised to make a powerful statement about his versatility, his star quality, his ichweissnicht (je ne sais quoi, auf Deutsch) in the coming months.

Just under two weeks ago, The Hoff was “roasted” memorably, if crudely, on Comedy Central.

Beginning in September, he will compete on the upcoming season of “Dancing with the Stars.”  (Big ups to Mo and Nicole for scooping even me on this story!)  This is a show I’ve never watched, save when Ozomatli performed live on one of the episodes.  But rumored participants in this season’s competition, aside from Mikhail Baryshnik-hoff, include Audrina from “The Hills,” The Situation from “Jersey Shore,” Bristol Palin, Octomom, Brandy, and Michael Bolton.  (Is it “Dancing with the Stars” or “Dancing with the Has-Beens and Never-Wases”?  I mean, aside from The David, of course.)  Not to mix metaphors, but that’s what I call an irresistible train wreck of biblical proportions.

And finally, his A&E reality show, elegantly titled “The Hasselhoffs,” premieres in December.

My “live blogging” during the Hoff Roast was a success, so I was thinking of bringing it back for DWTS and/or the A&E show.  Thoughts?

Alright, enough of that.  It’s time for…

the weather:

Weather narrative: Here at the end of summer (at least for those of us in the education field), the weather has been rather nice: highs in the 70s to low 80s with low humidity.  Friday and Saturday should also be quite pleasant, as temperatures will be only moderately above normal and humidity will remain low.

The final heat wave of the summer will begin Sunday, the first of five straight days with high temperatures 90 or above.  A relatively low dewpoint and light north and northwest breezes should make things much more tolerable than during other heat waves this summer, when heat indices soared above 100 for days at a time.  But still, damned hot.

Things start to moderate toward next weekend, and conditions will be about normal for this time of year.

In terms of tropical storms, Hurricane Danielle is strengthening, but will deal only a glancing blow to Bermuda before heading back out to sea.  I’m more interested in Earl, which is currently a tropical storm but looks as though it will intensify into at least a category 3 hurricane.  Some models are suggesting that Earl could make landfall along the eastern seaboard, perhaps in our area, around 9/5.  Stay tuned for updates.

A return of the heat and humidity will be an unwelcome visitor around the middle of the following week (9/7 and 9/8), but I think that will be short-lived.

Future weather: As we head toward the end of that week (9/9 and 9/10), the humidity will break with some strong thunderstorms and conditions will be drastically cooler.  Highs will be in the 70s and lows in the lower 50s.

Winter sneak-peek: There has been a good bit of talk already that we’re going to have a harsh winter.  Just today I was talking with Amy about the quantity and girth of acorns on many lawns right about now.  As it turns out, extreme heat and humidity during a summer can beget larger and more plentiful acorns, which in turn can be a harbinger of a severe winter.  That’s Farmer’s Almanac stuff, there, but there could be some truth in it.

I will, of course, release a comprehensive winter forecast sometime in November.  But my preliminary investigation has yielded some sense of what I think we’re in for: late November and December are colder than normal; January thaws; February is frigid; winter temperatures last into March and even early April, with wild fluctuations in between.  In terms of wintry precipitation, I don’t see a repeat of the “snowmageddon” of 2009-2010, but a series of smaller snow events, ice storms, and the like, which can be just as dangerous, if not more.

Again, this is a thumbnail sketch; much more detail to come.

I hope everyone has a fantastic 2010-2011 school year!

Monsoon