CoralRed

Turns out we have had a wildfire statement up for a few hours. Seems strange after all the rain we had but of course it is what it is. Special Weather Statement Special Weather Statement National Weather Service State College PA 315 PM EDT Tue Apr 23 2024 PAZ004>006-010>012-017>019-024>028-033>037-041-042-045-046- 049>053-056>059-063>066-240000- Warren-McKean-Potter-Elk-Cameron-Northern Clinton-Clearfield- Northern Centre-Southern Centre-Cambria-Blair-Huntingdon-Mifflin- Juniata-Somerset-Bedford-Fulton-Franklin-Tioga-Northern Lycoming- Sullivan-Southern Clinton-Southern Lycoming-Union-Snyder-Montour- Northumberland-Columbia-Perry-Dauphin-Schuylkill-Lebanon- Cumberland-Adams-York-Lancaster- 315 PM EDT Tue Apr 23 2024 ...ELEVATED RISK OF WILDFIRE SPREAD THIS AFTERNOON... A combination of dry fuels, low relative humidity and windy conditions this afternoon will create an elevated risk of wildfire spread across much of Central Pennsylvania. Minimum relative humidity values will range from 20 to 30 percent accompanied by wind gusts between 20 and 30 mph from the south- southwest.

Next Monday, April 29, up here in Williamsport may be a record breaker as well. Right now Wunderground is calling for a high of 85. Historic high for the 29th is 86. I hate the yearly switch to when max highs are awful and you would give anything for some relief. We are not there yet but it is coming. As for today, high was 70 and is now 68. I will close the open door soon. I have enjoyed the fresh air the higher temps have allowed me to bring into the house a few times recently. Many more open door and then open window days to come of course.

Slow start this morning and I am still up at 6:00a so I will go first. We dropped to 32 overnight and there is a Freeze Watch for tonight so my wish to not go below 34 in Williamsport again this spring will obviously not come true. Frost and temps under 35 mentioned for Sunday, Monday, Wednesday and Thursday nights this week. Some days with some sun, thank goodness. Next Sunday 73/55.

2:15a: Frost Advisory. Already 34 here in Williamsport, our ppl predicted low for the night. I hope it doesn't get lower this spring. Our local farmers have had too many weather problems in recent years. Weather.com headline last week said July and August may be among the hottest we have ever had. I saw numerous times on Twitter this winter that sea temps were very high. More recently the hurricane predictions were for very active season. I will stop the doom and gloom report now.

We didn't end up getting a big show here at all. Some of everything except I guess hail but only at say medium to strength. I hope you will have same good luck. I am assuming there will not be a Round 2 here This looks promising with only 40% chance of precip for Harrisburg. Last updated at 6:00: Detailed Forecast Tonight A chance of showers and thunderstorms before 2am, then a slight chance of showers between 2am and 3am. Some storms could be severe, with damaging winds. Increasing clouds, with a low around 60. West wind 7 to 16 mph, with gusts as high as 29 mph. Chance of precipitation is 40%. New rainfall amounts of less than a tenth of an inch, except higher amounts possible in thunderstorms.

I would think so. Here is what I have right now on Wunderground.com.

6:37a. It was very dark and parking lot light came on at 6:30. We have gotten faint lightening and thunder but not at same time. Wind is getting noisy and some rain is coming down. The long lead in is nerve wracking. Now the two dining room windows are making the low pitched noise they make when wind really gets going. By the way, original 1940s windows were replaced a few years ago and the new ones "sing" too but not nearly as often.

5:15p: Wind has picked up in Williamsport. Now W 28 G50. High was supposed to be 75 but went to 84. Dropped to 82 in last 15 minutes NWS noted air is drier than expected which may limit storms later. It has been a long time since we had big storms here and I have to admit I am not in the mood tonight for a lot of thunder and lightening. Enough Middle Eastern booms on the TV, for one thing. I saw on Twitter that Jordan took out about the same number of things we did. Good thing they came through. Anyway, I just checked and storms that had been on border are now about ready to drop into second row of counties which includes Lycoming. So whatever is coming will be here soon. Storm Warning just issued.

Williamsport is about what you would expect. 75 now, low only going to 52 overnight. We are clouding up though which is too bad and will have lots of clouds and rain for the rest of this week.

Thank you canderson and Porsche for the photos. They turned out great, especially considering what you had to work with. So we can look back in the years ahead and see a realistic style photo and an artistic style photo of the April 8, 2024 afternoon eclipse for our area right here.

3:15p: The Williamsport report is coming to you from the loveseat because it is not worth getting up and going out on the porch for. When I look out the window it looks like we are going to get snow, which of course we won't at 59 degrees. What had been mostly light gray clouds now are mostly medium gray. Ugh. You know it's bad when the picture from inside wouldn't look better taken outside. I do hope more than just canderson can see something worth seeing.

Look what came up when I happened to hit purpleair.com also known as last summer's Smoky Air website. Look at all those single digit readings including some just 0s and 1s. I am shocked we can get such clean air here in Williamsport. What a great day, right? If only this had been eclipse day!

Did anybody else besides me watch this? It is pretty interesting and I wondered what people thought. It was full of surprises. One came close to home as landfall was predicted about where I lived for years in downtown Jersey City about ten blocks from the Hudson River. Another point of interest to me was evacuating NYC area. How could it be done in a matter of days? I thought about that during Katrina as the struggles of people in New Orleans were on TV and later when Superstorm Sandy paid us a visit. There are so many more residential towers and less undeveloped land to absorb water than there once was.

Jesus, just checked in first time tonight or maybe even all day. Wasn't expecting all this activity. Still 67 in Williamsport, TV says our rain coming soon. We will only drop down to 54 overnight and only go up to 57 as our high tomorrow. I expect to be up for awhile and will check back.

I may be speaking just for me, I may be speaking for many -- but I feel I need to see a picture of that. No dog of any size could do that in our bathroom. And a 130 lbs dog is same size as an adult woman. So the next time you get a chance, could you treat us to some laughs and take a picture to share with us? Please say yes!

I posted a few heat-related tidbits earlier. I just found another one: Canada is already putting out Western province forest fires, ahead of their normal fire season. I never saw anything on the news about Canada adding lots of new money, manpower and firefighting equipment to their budget. Without lots more money, they will still let a lot of fires go so I figure another bad summer for them could mean another bad summer for us. I do not want to see smoke values of almost 500 and be told to stay indoors. But based on this fire scientist's remarks, it could happen again. https://x.com/queenofpeat/status/1761496677779755329?s=20

2:45p: Temperatures in Williamsport. We are cold up here vs the rest of you. Only 34 at the airport. I see we are going down to 19 overnight. Looking at the 14 day forecast, the coldest night is 24. I would not be surprised if we don't make it back into the teens again this winter. Next two weeks have lots of 50s and even some 60s. We shall see. I just hope we don't have a hot summer. I saw last week that whatever they call it designated hurricane creation zone in the Atlantic was at July temps now, a first. Yikes! Last month I saw temp map of Australia that was all light brown, that was how hot it was there. Enjoying the sun up here, that's for sure, after so little of it recently.

I am so glad the show was worth the trip. I am going to do a little Williamsport promotion here. This is Williamsport's gorgeous Community Arts Center. It was the Capitol Theater when I was in school. We lost all three of our downtown movie theaters as far as first run movies were concerned by 1980. The newest one was demolished. The Rialto was taken over by a church and with a lot of help and hard work, the Capitol was transformed into this big beautiful space. No one would expect little Williamsport would have this gem but we do. If there's a show up here you're interested in, please come. You won't be sorry!

NWS has Montoursville Airport, 5 miles away from Williamsport, down for .01 at 18:54 and 20:54 last night, for grand total of .02 over last 24 hours.

This one was hard to pin down and once it looked like things were becoming clear at last, there was the big move south. We never did have a handle on it. It is still 36 at 1:45a at Montoursville Airport and while we are in blue for snow, lots of rain still happening in middle of the state like above Harrisburg. I figure things could go several ways for everybody and we will just have to see.

NWS and others say Williamsport gets almost nothing at under 2. AccuWeather still sticking with the prior program. I do not know why: TONIGHT'S WEATHER MON, FEB 12 Snow; rain mixed in early, accumulating 4-8 inches; slippery conditions may lead to travel disruptions Lo: 34° Tomorrow: 1-3 inches of snow early in the morning; mostly cloudy and breezy; storm total 4-8"; dangerous travel in the morning with some improvement in the afternoon Hi: 41°

Less than two hours ago NWS had Williamsport at 6-9 in its Winter Storm Warning. They did say in their Discussion that things had shifted south but they were holding off on changing northern predictions for the time being. Now here is what they say: less than 2. So I guess there won't be much to report about up here. I am very happy for the people getting lots more than they thought. Tonight Rain and snow showers, becoming all snow after 4am. Low around 32. Light northeast wind increasing to 5 to 9 mph in the evening. Chance of precipitation is 80%. Total nighttime snow accumulation of around an inch possible. Tuesday Snow showers likely, mainly before 9am. Cloudy, then gradually becoming mostly sunny, with a high near 37. Northwest wind 9 to 14 mph, with gusts as high as 28 mph. Chance of precipitation is 60%. New snow accumulation of less than a half inch possible.

I noticed this over at weather.gov. We broke some records due to warmth. Between big drops in gas prices on the world market finally translating into lower UGI rates and a warm winter overall, I must say I am glad my gas bills are finally less: .CLIMATE... The following temperature record occurred during the mild weather on Friday and Saturday: FRIDAY FEBRUARY 9TH: -High of 58 degrees at Williamsport tied the record set last year. -High of 62 degrees at State College broke the previous record of 59 degrees in 2001. SATURDAY FEBRUARY 10TH: -High of 53 degrees at Bradford tied the record set in 2001. -Low of 35 degrees at Bradford tied the record maximum low temperature set in 2002. -Low of 41 degrees at State College broke the previous record maximum low temperature of 39 degrees set last year.

I wish there were a lot more people here from the northern part of the state, not just us here in North Central PA but NE PA too. But there aren't. So we rely on you guys further south to keep things going. You do us a pretty big favor, if you think about it. You all keep the subforum going and I am very grateful for that. The northern handful can just chime in with opinions and reports as best we can.

Me too! I am in Williamsport and very curious as well. Looks like we could get something worthwhile out of this. I wasn't expecting that. Earlier today wunderground had just 1.4.