Pattern of warm and wet days. Phoenix Lights Answered (video).

Today will turn out to be another beautiful day with sunshine and temps in the upper 70s with low humidity. The story is that Thursdays and Fridays have been warm for the past month. I noticed this since I started running and use Thursday as my 'hills' day. Warm weather can make running hard- so it stuck out in my mind. Here's the warm pattern:
Thu- March 24th- 64F (+9) Fri - March 28th - 70F (+12) Thu- April 10th- 73F (+10) Fri - Apr 11th - 78F (+15) Thu - Apr 17th- 76F (+11) Fri - Apr 18th - 85F (+13)

The wet pattern is probably more noticeable since it falls on the weekends. I have noticed that 7 of the past 8 weekends have had wet weather. That is heavy weight in a statistical report. Here is the breakdown:
Saturday Sunday
March 1 (.02") 2-dry 8 (.24") 9-dry 15(.01") 16(.17") 22(0.01") 23-dry 29- dry 30-dry

April 5(trace) 6(.30") 12(trace) 13(.02") 19-dry 20(.65")
So as for this weekend....
With snow continuing our in the Rockies and severe storms in the south, you had to figure that our pleasant weather would not last long. Here are the forecast maps from the GFS model. A warm front will approach on Friday evening with a SE wind. That will be the sign of increasing moisture and clouds. Saturday's map here shows a cold front reaching us by evening with an increased chance of rain all day. Sunday map shows the tail end of that front will have another wave of low pressure develop and bring us more rain lasting into Monday.

Here is the video report from ABC News about the Hoax of UFO lights in Phoenix this week. No wonder the video was of video on a TV. That should have been the first red flag.

Flares on Balloons?

It appears that there might have been a hoax involved with the lights over Phoenix Monday night.
A man has come forward saying that he saw his neighbor launch helium balloons with flares hanging from them. More from azcentral.com. It might be a disappointment to some, and this goes beyond the scope of my blog. One day, maybe....
As for the local weather scene- it gets a little boring again. We did have some morning fog, as you can see here from our camera a Villa Julie College, in Baltimore County.
We can thank clear skies overnight, moist ground from recent rain, and a light easterly flow to get this to form. Usually this 'radiation fog' forms in valleys where the temperature gets colder and can reach the dew point first. You'll notice the parking lot does not have fog, since the blacktop holds in some of the heat. The hilltops also were fog free since overnight conditions create and inversion- warmer air rises and sits just above the ground, while the valley floors cools off. During the day, the sun heats up the ground, and the lower elevations end up warmer than the surrounding hills as that rising air cools.

Today a little nudge from New England's High and the old Low gets pushed farther away and we end up with a nice day. The weekend unfortunately looks to be a little wet, as this slow moving pattern settles another front near Maryland. I will go a little deeper into that tomorrow.

Earth Day Surprise Party? Visitors From another Planet? Go Blue Not Green!

UFO over Phoenix?
Our sister station ABC15 in Phoenix has exclusive video(note the format was not compliant so it is video of a TV screen) of light formations in the sky overnight. An official from Luke Air Force Base stated that they do not have any aircraft in the sky tonight and that the lights are not part of any Air Force activities. So, are we being visited? Here is another report from 12News with a pictures of four red lights in unique formation. Below is a you tube video clip from 2006 with strange lights once again over Phoenix.

Don't Scream a Green Theme...Go Blue!
I have spent a lot of time sharing information on this blog that is not played up in the mainstream. Scientific information that should calm alarmist thoughts about our atmosphere and stop the fear brainwashing our children. I realize that there is such emotion with this issue it is hard to break through and get some to listen to facts they don't want to hear. Some of my colleagues and fellow atmospheric scientists are getting tired of the discussion. I will not give up sharing proper information, but decided not to fight today. Instead- I want to direct your energy away from the Green theme and Go Blue. All this green talk, and we forget that the planet is 71% water. The recent ban of the crab harvest from the Chesapeake is due to dwindling populations... and of course the protection of the Great Barrier Reef in Australia.
Much more for your love of the sea can be found at the National Aquarium in Baltimore. Below I have posted another You Tube clip of the BBC program Blue Planet- Deep Sea. It is broken up into 10 minute parts- so you can take a break from your work and get your sea fix. Enjoy.