Tonight
An Air Quality Alert remains in effect until midnight tonight. The general public won’t be affected, but if you’re a child, elderly, or have asthma or other respiratory issues, the NWS suggests limited prolonged outdoor exertion.
It’s been another wet start to the weekend. Seems like “weekend” and “rain” mean the same thing.
Tonight
Most of the showers and thunderstorms are going to stay to our south tonight, but you’ll still need a rain jacket or umbrella if heading out. At least it’ill be warm, with 70 degrees forecast at 10 PM.
Today
Although the morning rain moved out, models redevelop showers to our east this afternoon and early evening, and spin them in here. These isolated/scattered showers are approaching in an usual direction: east-to-west. We call these “Crazy Ivans,” a reference to The Hunt for Red October (where a Russian nuclear submarine – from the east – almost started a war by defecting to the west). If you don’t get it, relax, you’re better off for it (for those who’ve seen the movie or read the book, we know it’s also not a technically accurate phrase). It’s nerd humor.
April postcards from Old Man Winter are common, but this May postcard has been waaaay out of bounds.
That said, you’ll like what we have to say about the rest of the day.
Today
At 11am the rain rope (“rain shield”) was sitting along I-65 and very, very slowly moving east at around 15 mph. It’s also way too chilly for May: 46 at 11am.
Whoever is doing the rain dance, did it right! Blame a “cutoff low” spinning in the middle of the country. It should rain out most – if not all – of the entire weekend.
So what is a cutoff low? It’s a low pressure system that has been “cutoff” from the flow of the jet stream (upper level winds) which push weather systems around. Since the low pressure system is cutoff from what steers it, it will just meander over the next few days, sending waves of rain our way. Until another system comes along and shoves it into the Atlantic Ocean, we are stuck dealing with it.
