Mid Week Weather Blog

Good Evening! We are in between a warm front that pushed through early this morning and an approaching cold pushing through tonight. Todays high temperature has reached 70°, above the average high of 67°. This coming after a "Not as Cold" morning low temp of 47°. This also, above the average low of 46°. First day since Last Friday temperatures are above normal. This month we've had 9 days with high temps below normal and 12 days with lows below normal. This equates to about 44% of the month temps being below normal as a whole. When you look at the daytime hrs only 38% of the month has been below normal whilst the nighttime hours are 50% below normal.
The avg temp is only running 1° above normal.
Enough statistic talk for the month, we have showers & thunderstorms in the area.

At the moment nothing severe here. It appears hail will be our biggest threat here followed by damaging winds and perhaps a small heavy downpour. The least threat here is tornadoes. All rain & storm activity should exit the state before daybreak after 2AM. In the line of 3 photos below, first is SPC Probability for Hail Map, 2nd is Damaging Wind Map, and 3rd is Tornado Map.

The next rain chance appears to arrive during or after the Friday Evening Rush Hour Commute.

Well while we've been chilled out after record setting above average heat last month, the Central Plains and Southwest has been basked in 80° to as much as 100° heat. Here's a list of a few record setting triple digit temps (or tied):
APR 24-@Beaver Dam WX Station, AZ....104°
APR 24-San Bernardino Co., CA....102°
APR 24-Clark Co., NV....103° (tied)
APR 23-Yuma, AZ....109°
APR 23-Pinal, AZ....105°
APR 23-San Bernardino Co., CA...107°
There's dozens more of 100° days that make the list but I will not include them all. To browse through records set present and past. Click HERE. Below are two images taken from Intellicast.com. The left image shows their forecasted high for Wednesday Afternoon, most observed right in that ballpark figure. The Right Image shows where the heat wil continue to dominate. A reduction in a few degrees but pretty much the same for your Thursday Temperature Forecast as well.

We are now mid way through spring approaching summer and temperatures begin to increase along with an increase in chances for droughts. Today I'm going to briefly talk about wildfires and answer the tweet question above from my twitter page.
Wildfires can be known as forest fires and are pretty uncontrollable. There are about 4 different types of wildfires.
1. Surface Fires usually do not burn the soil. They burn branches or debris on the Earths surface. They are fast movers so root of trees are untouched, and safe.
2. Ground Fires burn organic cover. These occuring in drought conditions when the entire soil, organic layer is dry.
3. Spot Fires are created by a flying spark from another fire.
4. Crown Fires can be connected to a surface or ground fire. They generate a lot of heat making this a firefighters worse nightmare. They're usually fueled by periods of drought and low relative humidity.

The weather can play a part into the production of these wildfires but some are man made as well. In fact, to answer my twitter question, 4 out of 5 wildfires are caused by people not by weather related events (Answer is False here). Smoking or Improperly extinguished campfires make this the biggest cause for wildfires. This brings me to Smokey Bear. Watch this short video below. For tips on how to prevent wildfires click HERE.

Here's my updated 10 day outlook:

Tonight-Showers/TStorm diminishing after 2AM. Not as cool. Low 57.

Thursday-Mixed Sun & Clouds. Breezy. NW Winds 10-20 MPH. High 66.
Thursday Night-Partly Cloudy. Cooler. Low 41.

Friday-AM Sun w/ Increasing Clouds. PM Showers/T'Storms. High 56.
Friday Night-Mostly Cloudy. Showers/T'Storms. Low 44.

Saturday-Mostly Cloudy. Showers/T'Storms. High 55.
Saturday Night-Mostly Cloudy. Showers/T'Storm chance ending. Low 40.

Sunday-Sunny. High 56.
Sunday Night-Partly Cloudy. Low 41.

Monday-Sunny. High 61.
Monday Night-Partly Cloudy. Low 46.

Tuesday-Mostly Cloudy. Chance of Showers/T'Storms. High 66.
Tuesday Night-Mostly Cloudy. Chance of Showers/T'Storms. Low 55

Wednesday-Mostly Cloudy. Chance of Showers/T"Storms. High 72
Wednesday-Mostly Cloudy. Isolated T'Storms. Low 54

Thursday-Mostly Cloudy. Chance of Sprinkles. High 73.
Thursday Night-Mostly to Partly Cloudy. Some Clearing. Low 61

Friday-Mixed Sun & Clouds. High 82.
Friday Night-Partly Cloudy. Low 62.

Saturday-Mixed Sun & Clouds. High 79.