May 2023 General Discussion

[Chinook]

For me, the haze is obvious on the satellite image. I see a white-ish sky, but not a red sun tonight. There's only a been a hint of the slight yellow tint of the sunlight that happens when you get heavy forest fire smoke.

[TheClimateChanger]

Smoky out there tonight.

[Chinook]

And, I might add, I still don't know why the HRRR has about zero smoke density in our area, when it should be a moderate value.

[Chinook]

Since there's basically nothing happening across the country, here's the skew-T for my area today, without the severe weather indices. The cooling of the cold front made the 925mb-850mb temp to 3 degrees C this morning. There wasn't an inversion in mid-day, but rather a strong heating from the surface to 850mb, with then a nearly zero lapse rate above that. That's quite a chunk of dry cooler air from 850mb-700mb. It was breezy. Yesterday, Toledo had 80/38, notably, lower dew points than NE Colorado yesterday. That's hard to do. 

[OrdIowPitMsp]

Only made it up to 67 after a forecast high of 76 due to all the smoke today. With the cold front tomorrow it might mix down to the surface here.

[Chinook]

I need to turn on my thunder magnet.

[TheClimateChanger]

Sounds like the thick pall of smoke kept temperatures depressed several degrees in Minneapolis-St. Paul today.

[bowtie`]

The smoke made it to 40N. today. Chalky white skies all day. At sunset you could see the smoke better looking at the horizon and through the most atmosphere hence more smoke. The nearest clouds in this direction was the Iowa/Nebraska border and you can not see them from this location. This is all smoke.

 

[hardypalmguy]

Low of 34.9 this morning and not a frost advisory to be seen. Frost was very apparent outside. I bet people in more rural areas have damaged gardens. The smoke is also making the sky look like mars.

[A-L-E-K]

no frost here

[hardypalmguy]

41 minutes ago, A-L-E-K said:

no frost here

you live in a concrete jungle.  you don't get frost in january.

[madwx]

Got down to 38.  Just avoided any frost.  Couple more cool nights this weekend but should stay in the 40s

[A-L-E-K]

smoke p heavy today

[TheClimateChanger]

ORD, MDW and MKE all reporting a broken smoke deck at 25,000 feet, with scattered clouds of smoke at Indianapolis at the same altitude. Will be interesting to see what effect this has on temperatures. MSP reported highs several degrees below modeled levels yesterday.

KMDW 181353Z 14009KT 10SM BKN250 13/M02 A3009 RMK AO2 SLP191 FU BKN250 T01331017

KORD 181351Z 15012KT 10SM BKN250 13/M02 A3008 RMK AO2 SLP188 FU BKN250 T01331022

KMKE 181352Z 17006KT 10SM BKN250 13/03 A3008 RMK AO2 SLP189 FU BKN250 T01280033

KIND 181354Z 10006KT 10SM SCT250 13/02 A3009 RMK AO2 SLP187 FU SCT250 T01280022

[OrdIowPitMsp]

Cold front blasting through now. Should mix the smoke down to the surface, I’ll give a smell report later on. 

[Chicago Storm]

7 hours ago, hardypalmguy said:

Low of 34.9 this morning and not a frost advisory to be seen. Frost was very apparent outside. I bet people in more rural areas have damaged gardens. The smoke is also making the sky look like mars.

frost is overrated for garden/foliage damage.

[OrdIowPitMsp]

Smoke has made it to the surface here in Minneapolis. Airport reporting 2mi visibility with smoke. Not smelling anything but I’ve been outside all day so I might be noseblind right now. 

[OrdIowPitMsp]

Now I can smell it. 

[Chinook]

19 hours ago, bowtie` said:

The smoke made it to 40N. today. Chalky white skies all day. At sunset you could see the smoke better looking at the horizon and through the most atmosphere hence more smoke. The nearest clouds in this direction was the Iowa/Nebraska border and you can not see them from this location. This is all smoke.

 

Excellent sunset photo

[CheeselandSkies]

Looks like any storms will be biting the dust well to the northwest of here.

[Lightning]

4 hours ago, Chicago Storm said:

frost is overrated for garden/foliage damage.

Perennials and Native plants ... True

Annuals ... False

[Chicago Storm]

2 minutes ago, Lightning said:

Perennials and Native plants ... True

Annuals ... False

overrated for annuals too.

frost is hyped nonsense.

[weatherbo]

Frost can be devastating to a newly planted garden.  Established plants are hardier for sure.  I'd take an early season frost over a late season one anytime.

[Lightning]

2 hours ago, Chicago Storm said:

overrated for annuals too.

frost is hyped nonsense.

City folks 

[Chicago Storm]

5 minutes ago, Lightning said:

City folks 

that would make sense, if i lived in the city.

[A-L-E-K]

So many more trees in the city, could never stand the flat n gray burbs

[CheeselandSkies]

Well despite the storms appearing to be petering out around the La Crosse area on radar yesterday evening, we actually got a decent round of rain overnight in southern Wisconsin (although no thunder that I noticed). Now a pretty solid NE-SW oriented band from SE WI down to around Savanna/Clinton. Looks like most locations west/southwest of there got screwed again, though.

You'd think the transition away from La Nina would be helping us out more, like it is in parts of the western Plains.

[Cary67]

If this continues drought monitor will make an appearance 

[cyclone77]

Picked up 0.13" early this morning, which was enough to bump us a bit over 3" for May.

Looks like a long dry/boring stretch.  Hopefully June delivers the boomers.

[OrdIowPitMsp]

Much better air quality today. Still some smoke aloft but significantly better then the last few days. Heading up to the north shore of superior this afternoon for the weekend.