Posts

John Homenuk

New, major meteor shower possible May 23-24

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Meteor showers come and go annually, often timed with the seasons. The Leonids, Perseids, and Quadrantids are staples in the calendar. Accordingly, many have become accustomed to not only the meteor showers timing — but the rate at which meteors fall (per hour) during each shower. Some even are able to recognize and remember where in the sky, or the constellations, from which the meteors radiate from. But what happens when an entirely new meteor shower comes into the picture, with the potential to reach “storm” level?

Enter: The Camelopardalid Meteor Shower, peaking on the night of May 23 – 24 2014

Doesn’t quite roll off the tongue. The new meteor shower was discovered and timed by scientists last year — and was known to be possible before that. It is occurring, as most meteor showers do, due to the Earth passing through the debris path of a comet.  For instance, Earth has been passing through Comet Swift-Tuttle debris to create the Perseid meteor shower for thousands of years. This time, it’s Comet 209P/LINEAR which is causing the meteor shower — and Earth has never crossed paths with its debris before. (Featured image, meteor captured during the Eta-Aquarid meteor shower in 2013 by Justin Ng.)

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Doug Simonian

Foggy Friday followed by heavy rain Friday night

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A slow-moving cold front, along with a weak warm front that crossed the region on Thursday, will combine to create interesting changes to our weather — namely the potential for heavy rain on Friday afternoon. The warm frontal passage brought the introduction of a warmer, moist airmass — increasing dew points and precipitable water values. As the cold front shifts toward the area during mid-day on Friday, lifting in the atmosphere will gradually increase which will help to generate heavy rain and even the chance of a thunderstorm come Friday Night.

A large ridge in the Western Atlantic will act to provide plenty of clockwise flow increasing our warmth and moisture. Additionally, to the west, we have a potent trough and associated cold front with plenty of lift. The large ridge is what initially makes the front slow to move eastward, prolonging our fetch of moisture. This is a weather pattern we had often during the beginning of last summer, which is why we had such humid conditions. The initial slower movement of the cold front will keep the heaviest rain to the west of our area during the morning on Friday — but a slow shift eastward is expected.  Read more

John Homenuk

Unsettled trend brings heavy rain, cold front

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The backdoor cold front which we discussed a few days ago lived up to expectations throughout the area this week. Although not exciting by any means, the front brought cooler air and more clouds as it was expected to — essentially ending the brief period of warmth which saw temperatures on Monday reach into the mid 80’s. The east winds off cooler ocean waters are expected to keep temperatures in the 50’s and 60’s on Wednesday. Additionally, some low level moisture could lead to drizzle in many places, adding to the damp and dreary feel already in the air.

As a storm system approaches our area from the west later this week, the backdoor front will begin to lose some of its grip on the area’s weather. But the damage will have already been done in terms of spoiling what otherwise would’ve been a glorious period of warmth. Thursday looks likely to feature warmer temperatures in the 60’s and 70’s, but a continued trend of unsettled weather including clouds and some showers thanks to a southeasterly wind direction.

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John Homenuk

Warm, but unsettled weather this week

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Often, meteorologists pay close attention to the progression of the pattern very early in the Spring season. Although not backed by any statical research, it is often found that the patterns and trends in regards to frontal boundaries and airmass progression early in the Spring season can foreshadow how those very same boundaries will behave later in the season. This year has been no exception.

Early this Spring, warm fronts struggled to move northward from the Mid Atlantic, yielding instead to the cooler ocean waters and troughiness to our north and east. This very same thing occurred this past weekend, as warm front struggled northward from the Washington, DC area. Additionally, backdoor cold fronts have had plenty of push towards our area from New England — with marine air overtaking the pattern. This very same thing will occur on Tuesday, temporarily pushing out the warm airmass in place on Monday.

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