Picard

Over the Newton/Sparta area earlier, we had two distinct cloud formations that were trying to develop something. I even ran through a brief shower just outside of Newton, heading towards Sparta around 4:45. Just barley enough for one or two swipes with the windshield wipers. There was a tiny blip on radar and the only one around for hundreds of miles.

There was a narrow path of 75+ dewpoints today in and around the Hillsborough area and surrounding towns. Otherwise, not as awful as it's been in other places up here.

I don't quite understand this either. Take an example of Andover-Aeroflex Airport, which is just a quick skip away from me. They only report at :54 past the hour. Sussex airport is :53 past the hour and sometimes reports the whole degree and sometimes to the tenths of a degree without rhyme or reason. Morristown Airport seems all over the place with it's timestaps. Furthermore, they seem to round off to the nearest whole °C which is not precise. Most odd of all, Andover-Aeroflex has also recorded 4 inches of rain in the past 3 days according to their stream, which is simply false. Seems like these NWS data feeds are elementary at best, which is inexcusable in 2025. If I were running some kind of study or analysis, this data would be unreliable in a lot of cases. It seems like something C students would turn in as part of a middle school science project.

Some interesting numbers from the NOAA/NWS weather calculator pages, and assuming a sea level pressure of 30" Temp 95F, RH 20% = Dewpoint of 48 and associated Heat Index of 91.5F Temp 95F, RH 55% = Dewpoint of 76 and associated Heat Index of 109F Also, at high temperatures, relatively small jumps in the RH% value can make a BIG difference in the comfort level.

Agreed. We had our humid days, but never to this extent. And there is definitely a big difference when the dewpoint is 70 vs. 78. I always found 70ish tolerable. I'm going to wager a guess that the actual amount of moisture in the air grows exponentially as the dewpoint value increases (as opposed to linear growth which wouldn't have as dramatic an effect).

80°+ dewpoints used to be rare. Now its quite common to find them when perusing the maps or various station observations.

The most important thing is people walking away safely, which hopefully everyone did tonight. After that, then looking at the property losses, including vehicles. The costs and resources to repair or replace these things is astronomical these days, and with modern day cars, it doesn't take much water incursion to completely ruin it or run a tab into the tens of thousands in repairs.

Looks like there is about to be a lot more totaled out expensive cars floating around (literally).

Storms firing off to my north. That cell off to my north is warned. I can hear the thunder and see dark sky in the distance.

I was going to ask where the heat advisories were, but it looks like everywhere, except Sussex County. I'm at 94, DP 76, HI 107. That has a high bias as the sensor housing is in the direct sun. But I went out to shoot some water on the plants and it feels every bit of what the reading shows. Brutal. I only lasted about 10 minutes.

At some point this afternoon, the Hillsboro station recorded a HI of 121. If you point and click into the View Data option, it shows.

Some stations are heading for real-feel temperatures of 120+, at least in short bursts. Maybe some of that data would need to be smoothed out to compensate for sensor noise, but still.

Heat indexes already 105-110 in spots to our south!

Well they had it half right, it got very sticky and warm here in the late afternoon - standing over the grill was brutal. Weather station read a 101 heat index around 5:30 pm with a dewpoint of 78.

I wonder what kind of rain totals are occurring up and around the Binghamton area. It looks like some training was taking place up that way and they have been building back to some extent as the morning progresses.

Thundering here.

Someone is getting a sheet ton of rain with the way it's moving, and also appears to be re-loading a bit on it's back end.

Picked up 0.6" in about 12 minutes with that cell that passed over me. Nothing severe, just torrential rain and a bit of a breeze with some rumbles of thunder.

And just like that. The sun comes out and dewpoints into the 70s. Feels like summer.

You never cease to amaze.

2.65" storm total. We really got under some heavy radar returns for several hours overnight.

The costs of homes and autos, including insurance is becoming untenable. If someone's fancy Land Rover gets washed away in a flood, insurance is out 80-100K, which are costs they will ultimately pass on to everyone. Even a minor fender bender can be over 10K in repairs. Many of these homes wrecked in fires and floods are north of a million bucks. But even lower end homes and autos are becoming too expensive to maintain and repair.

Wow, zilch to boom in 15 minutes. Blew up right over us. A quick quarter inch with several loud cracks of thunder. Wasn't expecting that.

Looks like a bit of excitement coming through PA if it holds together.

The rain finally developed far enough east to put us under a steady heavier rain for several hours. We were closing in on an inch before I left and it was still raining pretty good. It looks like we might dry slot, maybe scattered lighter showers after 10 AM or so. But I think we've already reached at least the low side of the predictions, and the water for the plants is welcome.