Did We Skip Spring?
Today, Monday, is the first full day of spring…but temperatures reached the lower 80s! Couple that with a breeze, and you have a recipe for a fantastic day. There is plenty of sun left over for the remainder of the week, but we will cool down into the 70s Wednesday-Friday. There is also a slight chance of rain on Wednesday as a cold front comes through our area. We will get back up to the 80s for the weekend with another slight chance of rain. Watch the video below for more!
Beautiful Sunset
CLICK THE PICTURE TO ENLARGE AND FOR BETTER RESOLUTION!!!
The picture above was taken from the Climate Lab in Hilbun Hall looking north over Mississippi State’s campus. I had been with four other people for four hours working on a Thermodynamic Meteorology II assignment, and someone finally looked up from the notes and noticed the sky. It provided a nice break!
I am a sucker for spectacular sunsets. They make me be still for a moment in my super-busy life. It also reminds me of my faith and God’s love. How gracious is He to paint these beautiful pictures for us?
This was taken with the AutoStitch application on my iPhone. Yes, my phone!
SeCAPS at South Alabama
Chuck Doswell in the hat
This past weekend I went down to the University of South Alabama in Mobile for their 8th Annual Southeastern Coastal and Atmospheric Processes Symposium (SeCAPS). It was very similar to the symposium I was a coordinator for at MSU, but they did not have any speakers to talk about the broadcast side of weather.
Panel Discussion
Despite that, I still heard some great talks. Speakers consisted of professors at Texas A&M, Florida State, and the University of Alabama. There were three presenters from weather service offices in Louisville, New Orleans, and Birmingham as well as representatives from the NOAA National Data Buoy Center and NOAA Space Weather Prediction Center. The final speaker was Chuck Doswell, a man who needs no introduction in the meteorology world. He is considered one of the world’s best researchers when it comes to severe weather. I have been required to read several of his papers for some of my classes.
Doppler at NWS Mobile
A few other people, mostly juniors and a first-year Masters students, and I took a school van down to Mobile Friday after class (I was a bit dismayed to find out it was not the van I went storm chasing in last summer!) and went straight to the first session on campus. Two of my favorite talks were about the 2009 Louisville flood that affected the Kentucky Derby and a talk on space weather.
Official rain gauge at Mobile
We found a semi-sketchy hotel to stay in that night (after passing up on a fully-sketchy hotel) and made our way back to SeCAPS the following morning. There were two sessions on Saturday: one before lunch and one after lunch! One of my favorite things was actually the panel discussion where a majority of the featured speakers were all on stage. We students provided the questions/prompts.
NWS Office Mobile
Lunch was a great experience…and not just because of the great shrimp and crawfish etouffee I had. 
I sat at a table with Alan Sealls, chief meteorologist at a TV station in Mobile, and Chuck Doswell, the world-renown researcher. I picked Alan’s brain about a lot of things and didn’t say much to Mr. Doswell because of intimidation. (I wasn’t the only one.) I also got to talk with John Gordon, Meteorologist-in-Charge at the Louisville NWS office. He told me he was a hurricane hunter for fifteen years and gave me the information to the guy that does the hiring for that. I will be calling soon to see what the possibilities are of me becoming a pilot for the hurricane hunter in the near future. It was be AMAZING to combine my passions for aviation and weather in that capacity! Networking=Success.
Where it all goes down!
The guy who gave us a tour...at the machine that goes out to weather radios!
We finished Saturday with a tour of the NWS office in Mobile. This was not in the original plans, but one of the students from MSU struck up a conversation with a guy that works there, and he offered to take us by the office. It was really cool to see how watches and warnings are issued and just how everything runs. The NWS and on-air meteorologists have a strong connection. It was nice seeing whom we rely on so much. (It also confirmed that I belong on TV…not working with the National Weather Service! I greatly respect them, but it’s just not my niche.)
We left from there to go back to Starkville (not before stopping at a Buffalo Wild Wing’s to watch Mississippi State basketball beat Tennessee in Knoxville for the first time since 1999) and got there near midnight. All in all, it was a great weekend. I made several contacts and learned a lot about operational meteorology. The pictures you see scattered about are from South Alabama and the NWS Mobile office.
The phone on the right is connected to the White House! The middle picture is of a workstation, and the picture on the right is the laptop that processes the information received from the RADAR.
No, this is not from this past weekend but deserves to be posted. It was taken the day after the big February 9th snow event.
Click on any picture above to enlarge it!
Quiet Start to March
Fortunately, the severe weather threat for today didn’t pan out in Mississippi. A few places saw isolated thunderstorms, but most just received a light shower. The system got a little more ramped up when it crossed over into Alabama, though. We’ll see a drop in temperatures over the next few days but have lots of sun in our area. Watch my webcast below for more details!
Brief Cool Down
A front is currently making its way through Mississippi that will give a chance for some showers tonight and help to drop afternoon temperatures back to around 60 degrees for Tuesday and Wednesday. Temperatures will rebound Thursday back into the 70s, but we may get some strong thunderstorms. Check out the webcast below for more details!
I’m not sure what’s going on with my hair.
Pleasant Week!
This week will be drastically different than last week. Last week we had lows in the lows teens with snowy, icy conditions. This week, look for mostly sunny skies with high temperatures in the 60s and 70s. Check out the webcast below for all of the details this Valentine’s Day!
More Snow this Winter!
Cold temperatures will follow us through the end of the week with a very good chance of getting some measurable snowfall late Wednesday night into Thursday morning. Some locations could see 2-3 inches of snow, but I think 1-2 inches is the best average. (Amounts will decrease to the south.) The event should end with some freezing drizzle early Thursday morning. Watch the webcast below for more details. And check out the picture below that!
Oh, and how about those Packers?! I have been a Brett Favre fan for quite a while (and therefore Packers fan), so I was excited they won the Super Bowl last night. To show my support, I wore my jersey I got when I was in about the 3rd grade. Yes, still fits.
Stormy, Cool February
A cold front is headed our way that will allow for some heavy rainfall and wind gusts up to 40 mph Tuesday afternoon and evening. North Mississippi could see some strong thunderstorms, but any severe weather looks to stay south if I-20. Behind the front those temperatures will plunge! We could even see some snow flurries Wednesday morning as some of the moisture lagging behind mixes with that cold air. Watch my webcast below for more details.
Tricky Forecast!
It’s been a messy, rainy day all across Central and North Mississippi. The big question for the week has been whether or not some snow will mix in with the rain tonight into tomorrow morning. The webcast below (actually recorded yesterday afternoon) should give a little insight into what I am thinking.
In short, any frozen precip that falls around the Golden Triangle will not cause an traffic problems as surface temps will be above freezing. Farther to the north in places like Pontotoc and Tupelo, accumulation is more likely but is still not overly impressive right now. Believe it or not, we will see a lot of sun tomorrow and highs will be in the mid to upper 40s. This is definitely not favorable for any snow that does accumulate tonight.
Staying Cold
We will see warmer temperatures on Saturday under mostly sunny skies. Rain comes back into the picture Sunday night into Monday, though. Watch my latest weather webcast below for more details!
And don’t forget to check out the post before this to see a review of the winter weather from earlier this month along with some of my favorite pictures of the snow.
- It's really awkward when Mark Zuckerburg speaks.
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