|
|
|
|
Summer's Turning To Fall; Will Fall Bring Rain?
by Joel Young, Meteorologist/Reporter
September 04, 2012 11:45 AM
Labor Day has come and gone and after a long summer of extreme heat and drought; we’ve finally made it to the meteorological fall. Although we are all sick and tired of the heat and lack of rainfall, Monday proved to be a great day for many to get out and enjoy one last day of sunshine at the pool. Sure, we will likely see more days with above average temperatures, but with many area pools closing and people having to get back to work; it wasn’t too bad. Pierre, like many days over the past few months, reached 100 degrees. However, that’s the warmest it got and that’s much more tolerable than the 111 degrees we had just this past Wednesday. Valentine only fell behind by one degree while other places didn’t come close. Spencer was the coolest spot, topping out at 85.  Labor Day also proved to be somewhat disappointing for those of us thirsty for rainfall. At around 5 P.M. Monday afternoon, a line of showers and thunderstorms began to develop between the Missouri and James Rivers. However, as these storms moved eastward into much drier air east of the James River, the line fell apart. Only one of the storms reached South Dakota’s eastern border, and that was the one lone thunderstorm that dumped 0.23” in Mitchell and 0.84” in Sioux Falls shortly after the ten o’clock newscast. Huron and Aberdeen only managed to pick up a trace of rainfall in their gauges.  Although we don’t have many chances of rainfall in the forecast this week; anything is beneficial. Luckily, our chance of rainfall tonight is associated with a cold front that will also bring much cooler temperatures to the region. Most cold fronts that have moved through our area over the past few months have been dry with warm air eventually building back into the region rather quickly. This time, it looks like the cooler air will stay a few days. The first image below shows the placement of tonight’s cold front in NW Iowa and SW Minnesota early Wednesday morning. In the second image, you can see that one of our models actually has another weaker cold front later in the week.  Of course, there will be more warm days ahead. The next image shows warm air moving north and west once again sometime next week. However, these temperatures are nowhere near as hot as we’ve seen over the past few months. What this shows is that summer seems to finally be making an exit from our area and fall seems to be arriving just as scheduled. Hopefully, there will be more rain chances along with the cooler temperatures.
|
|
| |
|
|
|
