Balmy overnight weather could break record
Got up just before 5 a.m. today to toss a blanket off the bed and open the window. It was raining pretty steadily, but we really needed the air. Temperatures overnight just never cooled off, and the house was stuffy.
The National Weather Service forecast office in Sterling, Va. says the low temperature at BWI-
Marshall this morning was 68 degrees, nearly 30 degrees warmer than the average low for this time of year in Baltimore.
If that remains the day's low until midnight, it would set a new record for the date. The current record high minimum temperature for Oct. 27 in Baltimore is 66 degrees, set in 1920.
On Tuesday, we tied the record for the warmest low temperature for Baltimore on an Oct. 26. The low at BWI was 62 degrees, matching the record set on that date more than a century ago, in 1908.
The mild weather is a consequence of the powerful low-pressure system, centered north of the Great Lakes, which has been dragging a violent cold front across the Midwest and South. Warm, moist air ahead of that front is sweeping up from the south and southwest, keeping us warm, even overnight.
We recorded just under a half-inch of rain overnight here at The Sun. The airport saw a little over a half-inch. Parts of Montgomery County saw nearly an inch of rain. Here are some other reports from the CoCoRaHS Network.
The front is now parked pretty much on top of us. Until it gets moving again, we'll see scattered showers and thunderstorms and plenty of clouds. By late today, however, winds will diminish and skies will start to clear.
Forecasters say it will be another day before the cold, dry air that typically moves in behind a cold front actually arrives. So Thursday should be sunny and mild again, with highs in the low 70s.
But temperatures will start to drop Thursday night into Friday, with a forecast high on Friday of just 57 degrees, and overnight lows into Saturday in the 30s. Frost advisories may be posted for the western suburbs.
The weekend, including Hallowe'en, should remain sunny and more seasonably cool, if the forecast holds up, with highs only in the 60s, sliding toward overnight lows in the 40s.
Comments
Frank,
Did we actually get any "severe" weather in the Baltimore/DC area overnight? I live on the MD/PA line, so I tend to check both the forecast issued by NWS-Sterling for here, as well as NWS-State College for a mile north of me, to compare and contrast them.
All day, Sterling had been hyping strong winds (gusts to 39 mph), and then the tornado watch later in the evening popped up. Meanwhile State College was forecasting none of that one mile to the north - which seemed to be closer to what actually happened.
Obviously, with two sets of forecasters, one would expect different forecasts. But sometimes the differences between the two are large.
FR: No storm reports, no severe weather that I could find, unless an inch of rain in Montgomery County is severe. But it was a very potent system that could have turned out badly. Better safe than sorry. That said, yes, the crew in State College sometimes has a very different take on conditions than their counterparts in Sterling. Although they do consult each other, the forecast map frequently breaks along the Mason-Dixon line, where the two forecast areas meet. Today is another example. The tornado watch stops at the state line in Baltimore, Harford and Cecil counties.
Posted by: Chris Smolinski | October 27, 2010 1:44 PM