AccuCam Sweats, Tornadoes in Maine?
It's a weird August day here in the Northeast, folks. After not seeing the sun for nearly 6 days here in State College, we jumped from chilly temperatures in the 50s (quite unusual) to sweltering 90s with RealFeel and Heat Index readings well over 100 yesterday. Check out this temperature graph from the weather station at my house.
The temperature last night at my house at 10 pm was 80 degrees, with 78 at midnight, both 2nd warmest since I established my station here in Spring 2006, and no doubt in the top 10, probably top 5 of my last 10 years of weather observations here in Central Pennsylvania.
And it will be worse today, with mid 90s predicted as far north as Pennsylvania. And it's not just us - 130 high temperature records were set or tied across the South and East Coast yesterday afternoon, as high as 106 in Alabama.
The humidity is also intense - dew points were incredible too, spiking to 77 degrees here in State College, and in the upper 70s across southern Pennsylvania, Maryland and Virginia. The winners for highest dew points yesterday (remember, dew points over 80 are extremely rare in the United States): West Point, Shenandoah, Louisa and Williamsburg, Virginia, at 81 degrees.
In fact, this morning both the AccuCam and my webcam at home were "sweating" or, at least, the windows in front of them were, due to the heat and humidity outside versus our cool and dry air conditioning. This effect, where dew forms on the outside of the window, is rare here.
And where there's heat and humidity, you know there's thunderstorms. The SPC says that the only tornado threat in the nation today is in... Maine?! That's a rare situation but those 70-degree dew points have sliced into the state this morning ahead of a warm front, so it could happen. People in that state are not used to looking out for that kind of severe weather so we hope they will keep abreast of the developing situation today.
Meteo Madness Man (PREMIUM | PRO) somewhat disagrees, saying tornadoes could happen as far south as the DelMarVa peninsula. Wind and hail probabilities stretch much futher southwest across the Appalachians and Southeast, where storms will also occur... in fact I've alerted Local storm chaser Ron "R-Factor" Shawley that he may be in for another awesome chase day like Thursday.
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