Gain an hour of sunshine

After a busy weekend of weather and after losing an hour of sleep(which is never fun), a quieter pattern has taken control of our weather. Salisbury received over 1" of rain from Friday into Saturday and all of Delmarva also dealt with gusty winds, like Ashley mentioned below. But all is at least semi-quiet across the area now.
A weak clipper system will pass through the area tonight providing a slight chance for light rain showers. Sunshine will return for Tuesday afternoon through Thursday with highs rebounding back up to around 60° by the end of the week. Unfortunately, as of now, it looks like more rain is headed our way for the beginning of next weekend. Hopefully St. Patty's Day is dry!! Stay tuned...
Enjoy the sunshine and take a nap.

Delmarva Tornadoes

Over the weekend I received an email asking “When was the last time Delmarva has been hit with a major tornado.” I thought this was a great question and learned a lot about the history of tornadoes in Delmarva. Here are some facts I found from: http://www.bethanyopcchurch.org/severe/tornado_data.html. This information is from 1950-2005.

-There have been 90 F0, 111 F1, 40 F2, 4 F3 and no F4 or F5 tornadoes in Delmarva.
-The average track length of the tornadoes is 2.42 miles and the average width is 63 yards.
-There have been 6 fatalities and 192 injuries.

I also searched all of the tornado reports available on Wikipedia (there are a lot of fun tornado facts, something to check out if you are interested) for the years following 2005.


-The only tornado I found in the state of Maryland was the following, but it does not really fall in the category “Delmarva”: July 16, 2007: An EF1 tornado left a 4-mile (6 km) long damage path in Hartford County, Maryland. Numerous homes were damaged and roads shut down due to fallen trees and power lines.

Some other tornado facts for our area:
-On August 25, 1814, the War of 1812 Washington D.C. tornado killed several British soldiers occupying the city.

-From Wikipedia, The Rye Cove, Va. tornado outbreaks from May 1-2, 1929: “The Rye Cove, VA tornado was the deadliest among a potent tornado outbreak that swept from southwest to northeast along the Appalachian mountains from Alabama to Maryland. This outbreak is notable as one of the worst to affect the states of Maryland and Virginia, and as one of the few observed, intense tornado outbreaks affecting Appalachia. Producing 13 deaths, the Rye Cove tornado is the deadliest in Virginia history[1].”

Since we are talking about tornadoes, I posted the Enhanced Fujita Scale at the top of this blog. The EF Scale was presented by the National Weather Service at the American Meteorological Society conference in Atlanta, Ga. during February of 2006. This scale is still fairly new and an upgrade to the familiar Fujita Scale.

-Just another fun fact involving the EF Scale. According to Wikipedia the first time an EF5 will measured with this new scale was May 4, 2007 during the Greensburg, Kan. tornado.

A Windy Saturday Night

A wind advisory is in effect for all of Delmarva until 12 a.m. on Sunday. Wind gusts of 50 mph are not out of the question. So far, only one severe weather report has been reported to the National Weather Service for our area:

UNKNOWN WIND SPEED HEBRON WICOMICO MD 3842 7569 NUMEROUS TREES REPORTED DOWN (AKQ)

Weather watcher Chucky Plummer in Lewes reported that his patio furniture blew away. Weather watcher Pat Diefenderfer in Riverdale said these are some of the strongest winds she remembers for a while.

Check back for updated information. If any more reports come in, they will be posted.

Wet Start for the Weekend

The forecast remains on target just how Kira mentioned in the post below. The first batch of widespread rain will continue through around midnight, then there should be a bit of a lull in the showers for a few hours overnight. Then the main component of the storm will intensify an area of low pressure which will track into the mid-Atlantic Saturday. This will bring another round of widespread showers early Saturday morning through late afternoon, with a possible thunderstorm. The showers should begin to taper off around 4PM and then clearing will take place Saturday night.

Besides the rain, wind and mild temperatures will accompany this storm. Like Kira mentioned, the severe threat looks to be a lot less this go around but strong winds still could cause some damage. Wind gusts may exceed 40 mph during the day on Saturday. There is a Wind Advisory in effect from Noon Saturday until Midnight Saturday for the Southern half of Delmarva. Winds be Southerly as the storm tracks well to the west of Delmarva. With the South winds temperatures will keep rising tonight through the 60's and remain in the 60's for Saturday. Some areas away from water, may even reach the upper 60's if the Southerly flow is strong enough. After the storm passes, the winds will switch out of the West and colder air will transport back into the region. Temperatures drop back to the 40's for highs for Sunday and Monday.

On the surf side, the strong South winds will kick up a big and choppy South swell on Saturday but ridable condition return on Sunday with still some sizeable surf for Sunday AM with strong West winds. The strong winds will quickly fade the swell so it won't be around long. Also, don't forget to turn the clocks ahead 1 hour Saturday night. I love daylight savings time, I don't mind losing an hour sleep for longer daylight. Have a great weekend

Rain Is Coming, Again

Two big storms in just one week! It has definitely been an active week of weather. This storm system, however, will not have as much severe weather associated with it as the last one did. With that said, some heavy rain will still fall with this system and that will cause some flooding, especially to our North into Pennsylvania where they are already dealing with overflowing rivers.
As far as the forecast goes...pretty much on par with what we've been predicting. One round of moderate/heavy rain is currently pushing on our doorstep. It should move in from South to North by early afternoon and continue into the evening hours. The rain may lighten up during the overnight hours tonight, but then more rain is headed our way on Saturday as the second area of low pressure pushes through the Mid Atlantic region. Along with the rain, it will be windy on Saturday with gusts possibly over 30 mph. There is also a chance for thunderstorm on Saturday. Finally the rain looks to taper off during the evening hours.
Much cooler and windy conditions will prevail on Sunday with mostly sunny skies. Then a quieter weather pattern looks to set up early next week. Have a great weekend, stay dry!

Next Rain

Forecasted Rain Totals for Friday

Forecasted Rain Totals for Saturday

Unfortunately all of this beautiful weather will come to an end as our next chance for rain approaches. Rain is expected to enter Delmarva on Friday in the late afternoon, sticking around into Saturday. It looks as though there may be a few spots were the rain lets up throughout the day on Saturday, but the rain is not expected to completely push out until the late afternoon/early evening. As of now, we are not at risk for severe weather, the slight risk cuts off right to our south, but I won’t rule out the chance for another thunderstorm. Rain totals for Friday look to range between 0.25” and 0.5”, with the heavier rain to the south, but for Saturday, the heavier rain will be to the north, with totals ranging from 0.75” to 1.5”. The graphics above depict the total rainfall expected for Friday and Saturday.

As far as the severe weather across the country for today, a possible tornado was reported in Texas along with hail and wind reports. Also, with a separate disturbance, wind and hail reports have come out of Florida’s east coast.

It's Almost Spring, Go Green!

If you missed Weather Matters this morning, here's a recap.

Everything will soon start to turn green and begin to bloom; Spring is right around the corner. In the spirit of spring, each week throughout March during Weather Matters, I'll talk about ways to go green, to live more environmentally friendly.

Today, why bother going green? A quick search of "Why go green?" into google produced over 48 million hits. We are literally bombarded by everything green; from lightbulbs to cars. Companies are also promoting a greener lifestyle. The CW is running a campaign called "Free 2 B Green". And General Electric has a new series called Ecomagination.

There are a few common misconceptions about going green. First, going green means you're a huge global warming activist. Not true. According to the U.S. Census Bureau, the world's current population is over 6.6 billion. That number is expected to expand to over 9 billion by 2050. That means that if all of the world's natural resources were evenly distributed, people in 2050 will only have 25% of the resources that people had in 1950. Bad news for your kids and grandchildren.

The second misconception is that going green costs a lot of money and is hard to do. Again, wrong. According to the Go Green Initiative, did you know...
- For every ton of paper that is recycled, the following is saved: 7,000 gallons of water; 380 gallons of oil; and enough electricity to power an average house for six months.
- You can run a TV for six hours on the amount of electricity that is saved by recycling one aluminum can.
- By recycling just one glass bottle, you save enough electricity to power a 100-watt bulb for four hours.

Throughout the rest of March, I'll tell you simple ways to become green at home, at the store, and on the road. I hope you join us!