This is a visible satellite image as of noon. In regards to sunshine, there is a distinct line between the haves and have nots right now. Even though the light rain and drizzle quit this morning around 4am, a batch of thick cloud cover quickly developed across the Stateline. This batch of clouds is moving slowly at about 25 mph. If you live in Harvard, Marengo, or DeKalb... don't worry the sunshine is coming your way. You will be able to discard the gray for lots of blue by 2pm.
The healthy sunshine this afternoon will kick off a beautiful stretch of tranquil weather. The timing of our next storm system looks like Monday, but some of our data is trying to speed this rainmaker up into Sunday afternoon. I'm not buying it yet until we get a few more runs with this same solution. Eric's take on that next chance should show up on the 7 day outlook on this web page by 4pm. -ADAM
5 comments:
I know right now as of 1:51 pm it is crystal clear here in loves park.
Off topic question.
I hear Eric a lot say that the dewpoint is a potential low temperature, if there is calm winds and clear skies.
Where we stayed on vacation, was in southwest Colorado. All week the dewpoint day and night was between 20 and 25 degrees, but the low temps were always in the mid 40s, under clear skies and calm winds. We were, though about 8000 feet above sea level, whereas I know here in RFD we are below 1000ft.
So my question is, does the dewpoint theory work the same way there? :) hope that made sense.
We did notice that very low dewpoints cause really dry skin!
The air temperature can never fall below the dew point. The regular air temperature also does not need to be particularly close to the dew point either. Humidity is simply a measure of the actual amount of moisture in the air divided by the capacity for moisture in the air, expressed as a percentage.
When the temperature does fall to the dew point, the air is saturated, and fog will develop.
Jim - how warm were the afternoons? If highs were, say, in the 80s, then that's the answer to the question. The atmosphere *can* have big diurnal temperature swings. For example, a couple summers ago up in Hayward, WI... the morning low was in the upper 30s, but the following afternoon was in the upper 80s. That's a relatively extreme situation, though.
Under the most ideal circumstances that we would tend to see, the atmosphere is capable of diurnal variations on the order of about 30 to 35 degrees. As in the example above, it CAN be more than that, but conditions have to be... "super ideal," I guess you could say?
Hopefully that made sense. I'm on the verge of going to bed, but a cat on my lap is preventing me from doing so... so I figured I may as well check the blog. :)
Hi Justin!
The afternoons were typically in the upper 60s and the nights were always in the low to mid 40s. It was clear almost the whole time we were there. Thanks for your insight!
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