CoolHandMike

It must have poured like the dickens just before I got home. .8" from that one little storm! Drove through the remnants of it on the 176. Nice and cool now as well.

There's a nice blob over Reading... just to my east. Like, less than a couple of miles away. Arg. (gonna have to water again tonight)

Pretty hot here. Some nice CU starting to develop though.

On one hand, the Pacific decadal oscillation is a thing that pros and amateurs alike have been trying to find correlations with our winter weather for, well, decades. OTOH, that would mean this winter's prone to suckage. I guess we'll find out!

Caught this headline in the local rag: "Winter in Berks might be rough, forecasts and signals show" https://www.readingeagle.com/local-news/winter-in-berks-might-be-rough-forecasts-and-signals-show/article_2a893f8e-f771-11eb-935b-07a250729df9.html One (retired) met is calling this year analogous to 2010... Here's hoping!

Man that radar looks so juicy to our south. I'll just settle for a nice, cloudy day I guess.

Entering the dry season it seems. Two weeks ago, my lawnmower struggled to get through the lush grass in my back yard. I mowed it again 4 days later and it was still a bit tough. Then I wasn't able to mow it again for 10 days... no struggle at all this time. I have the feeling it's going to get pretty arid out there with no rain in the forecast until the end of next week! Looks like we'll be watering tonight. At least it's not too humid out, so that's nice.

Spent a lovely day out in the field today. Looking forward to working outside in this unseasonably cool weather the rest of the week, though it's already looking like next week will be a scorcher. Ah well, enjoying it while it lasts. Speaking of, enjoyed spending a few minutes on the deck this evening until the mosquitos zeroed in. I've just cancelled my monthly lawn pest control service as it seemed to not work at all. My wife wants to try a biological approach, so we'll see how that turns out. Anyway, we decided to try to not turn on the A/C for as long as we could today and actually made it all day with only minor discomfort for my work-from-home wife and my stay-at-home mother-in-law. I think we're gonna try to see how long we can go as our electricity bill has been pretty atrocious this spring/summer already. Ceiling fans in almost every room for the win. About to turn in; really nice 62°F/57°DP atm. Make mine an extra spicy bloody Mary please, @Birds~69.

Looks like the main red cell that was heading my way has decided to move south. We're still going to get rain, and it does look rather mammatus-y out there, but dang. Was hoping for a soaker.

Oh my, that line does look pretty robust...

Sun peaked out for half a second here. Just waiting for that line to split around me.

My local WU forecast is calling for "heavy thunderstorms" around 8pm. That would be a lovely way to end the weekend.

Warm and windy out. Few clouds.

Now with town names

Oh my. Get to the basement or a bathroom if you don't have a basement.

Holy moly that's a lot of lightning! Pretty much over here except for the scraps. Got .23", sitting at 75°F/72°DP

Don't see any rotation on radar so I'm heading back out to the garage. This time with a nice, frosty beverage.

I just sat in the garage with the door open listening to the light rain. Heard a little bit of distant thunder but that's it so far. Received a tornado warning for Northern Berks but that's way far away from us here in Reading, however it looks like a cell might be forming to my west though, so we'll se if it turns into something. .06" in the gauge so far, temp 77 and DP 74.

Cell on the MD line north of Frederick has some potential to it. Keeping an eye on that one.

Just noticed the cell over Rehoboth is tornado warned. Looks mean down there.

MD to our west: Mesoscale Discussion 1388 NWS Storm Prediction Center Norman OK 1221 PM CDT Thu Jul 29 2021 Areas affected...Central/South-Central PA...Central MD...Extreme Northern VA Concerning...Severe potential...Watch possible Valid 291721Z - 291915Z Probability of Watch Issuance...40 percent SUMMARY...Increase in storm coverage and intensity possible, with a corresponding threat for damaging wind gusts. DISCUSSION...Convectively induced shortwave trough continues to progress quickly eastward across the upper OH Valley. Strongest forcing for ascent within this shortwave appears to be moving through central and southwest PA now, demarcated by a line of slightly higher reflectivity from roughly Clearfield County southwestward through Greene County. Estimated motion with the northern/central portion of the line is eastward at around 45 kt. Southern portion of this line appears to be a bit slower, with storm motion estimated to be east-southeastward at 35 kt. In both cases, this area of stronger ascent will continue to move eastward across PA and adjacent northern WV/western MD as the downstream air mass destabilizes. Abundant mid to upper level clouds are obscuring the low-level cloud field as well as tempering heating. Even so, some cumulus can still be seen across eastern areas of the region and temperatures have risen into the upper 70s/low 80s. Based on modified RAP forecast soundings, any remaining convective inhibition is minimal. Consequently, an increase in storm coverage and intensity seems possible as this shortwave continues eastward into this region over the next hour or two. The overall environment supports bowing line segments capable of damaging wind gusts with any more robust, long-lived storms. ..Mosier/Hart.. 07/29/2021

Exciting! Might go test fire the genny in a little bit, make sure it's in good working order.

I must be looking at the wrong soundings, also I can't seem to find that page on DuPage's NEXLAB. Got a link?

Trash collection came super early today. I mean, in the 10 months I've lived here, it's never come before 8am on collection day. Somebody at the main office must be tuned in to what's going on... Everybody's saying there is low model confidence leading up to today's events what with the MCS descending from our NW. I'm not seeing much in the way of shear, and CAPE seems to be relatively low throughout the day (1000-1500) but LI values seem a little bit more interesting, possibly dipping to -4 over our area if I'm reading the RAP right. Could we (or at least our northern tier) be under a classic Larko's Triangle setup this evening? Daytime heating will struggle under our present cloud deck but there's certainly enough moisture with DP forecasted at or above 70°F this afternoon. This will be interesting to watch develop over the course of the day. Glad I'm working from home today

If memory serves, I remember getting a ton of rain in one summer storm that completely flooded the neighboring creek in a way that we'd never seen before. I remember going out in my wellies with a neighbor friend and stomping around in the periphery (!!!) and just marveling at how much water there was in a place where the stream is usually only a foot deep. It flooded it's banks and must have been 10 ft deep in the center of the channel, though of course we never got close to that. This would have been the summer before high school and I was definitely an outdoor kid. Thanks for sharing that Agnes! Looks like it's clouding over just a bit over here; it's actually quite pleasant outside at the moment.