Happy St. Patty's Day!

HAPPY ST. PATRICK'S DAY! 

We have the luck of the Irish, or maybe it's the high pressure system, bringing us gorgeous shamrock finding weather! Expect sunny skies for the next few days with temperatures in the 60s today and 70s tomorrow. 
A strong system is heading our way for Friday bringing quite the temperature spread to the Panhandles as a cold front moves through. Scattered showers may start as soon as Friday afternoon with the chance of thunderstorms to the southern and eastern portion of the Texas Panhandle. As cold Canadian air channels into the area with the help of strong northerly winds we will see the precipitation transition to snow overnight. Looks like the heaviest snow will fall to the north in the Oklahoma Panhandle. 
Saturday is the first day of spring, but it will feel more like winter in the 30s. Folks heading out to Shamrock, Texas for the St. Patrick's Day festival better bundle up! Moderating temperatures for the start of the work week as high pressure builds in.

Good luck finding that pot of gold!

Aunt Terry's Visit & A Tornado!

Aunt Terry came to spoil visit me this weekend. We had so much fun! She arrived on her birthday (March 4th) which just so happened to be the same day as Amarillo's Restaurant Roundup. The illustrious Chef Bud was the MC and gave us a shout out in the audience which resulted in a free drink for the birthday girl! The next night was the Special Olympics basketball game, where Channel 4 & other folks from the media were schooled by some pretty special basketball players. Then we had a night on the town and ended up salsa dancing! 

Saturday we took a trip to the Palo Duro and she fell in love as quickly as I did the first time I saw it. We tried to go horse back riding, but long story short, we weren't able to. I had a great time with her and honestly miss her already. Our conversations were those you can't really carry out on the telephone and made me feel truly reconnected to her. 

We woke up a bit nervous Monday (March 8th) for her flight out of town. She was a sport and got up with me at 2:30am and came to the studio to watch Today in Amarillo live. A slight chance of severe weather was threatening the far northeastern portion of our viewing area, but she got out without a hitch.

Later on that day Jason Boggs, our KAMR storm chaser who I will be joining this year, got some excellent footage of a tornado in Western Oklahoma north of Elk City.  

click here to see Jason's footage 

This is our first taste of severe weather this season, I'm so excited! Because this is an El Nino year we are anticipating an active severe storm season. 

An above average season for my first year of chasing matches my extreme track record. Back in 2005, my freshmen year in Miami studying meteorology, we had a very active tropical storm season as well. In fact, Hurricane Wilma hit Miami on my birthday (Oct 24th) shutting down the town for quite some time.

Monday's Forecast

Widespread showers with embedded thunderstorms this morning will continue to bring isolated heavy downpours, lightning and pea sized hail. Rain will move from the southwest towards the northeast out of the Panhandles this afternoon. Strong gusty winds up to 55 mph for the southwestern portion of the Texas Panhandle may create areas of blowing dust. Hopefully enough rainfall will happen there to prevent this annoyance. There is a slight chance of severe weather in the northeastern Texas Panhandle and eastern Oklahoma Panhandle where large hail and strong gusty winds will be the main threat this afternoon as the rain exits our area. Rain should end by this evening, but these strong winds will continue into tomorrow behind this upper level low. Skies will clear to sunny tomorrow with highs in the low 60s. 

Another slight chance of rain comes Wednesday as another system heads our way. This system does not have the convective potential that the system we are seeing today has. Overnight the rain may turn to snow in the Oklahoma Panhandle, but accumulations are looking unlikely. Showers should last until Thursday afternoon, with cooler temperatures settling in behind the cold front. 

Clear skies and dry condition with temperatures rebounding back to the 60s return just in time for your weekend.  

 Keep the umbrella handy this morning!

Weekend Forecast

Rick Husband International Airport recorded a welcomed high of 72 degrees yesterday. This warm weather has everyone enjoying the outdoors after being cooped up inside this winter! Well we have more good news for you folks, more nice weather is in the forecast for the start of your weekend. Highs will be in the upper 60s and low 70s today with breezy southwesterly winds. Tomorrow is looking the most pleasant  with lighter winds and temperatures similar to today. Lots of rain starting Sunday lasting through Monday. There is a good chance for thunderstorms with this system, but severe weather is not expected. A cold front passing through the Panhandles Monday will leave Tuesday a bit cooler in the mid 50s. Slight chance of rain returns Wednesday evening but should clear up by Thursday morning. 

 
Keep that umbrella handy!


(Thanks to the Lubbock NWS)

This Date in Weather History - ForecastingFail

 On this day over one hundred years ago President Taft was inaugurated. The then U.S. Weather Bureau, now National Weather Service, had fair, mild weather in the forecast. The weather did not comply and turned into the snowiest inauguration day to date, accumulating 10 inches in the Capital. The inauguration ceremony was forced indoors but the parade was still on. It took a reported 6,000 men to fill 500 wagons with 58,000 tons of snow for the route.   



Forecasting the weather is a tricky, inexact science even today and you can imagine how hard it must have been back then. Without computer models, daily weather balloon deploys or any of the other advantages we use in today's  forecast, they did the best with what they had. Despite their technological shortcomings, the men at the U.S. Weather Bureau were of course to blame. Now I doubt this is the first time meteorologists were blamed for the weather, but it certainly put us in the limelight.


 Not sure if more funding was given to or taken away from the Weather Bureau due to this mistake. Unfortunately it was probably the latter. 

Wednesday's Weather

Rise and shine Amarillo to another beautiful day! With our temperatures in the lower 60s and mostly sunny skies today's another great day to spend outdoors. As high pressure dominates dry, stable air sets up over the Panhandles the next few days. A low pressure system stays to the north of the area Friday. So we'll miss the rain from this one, but we will experience windy weather as a result. Saturday and Sunday are looking warm and breezy in the mid 60s. Another Pacific system brings us rain Sunday evening into Monday. With the increased moisture in place from the Gulf we cannot rule out a thunderstorm or two from this system, nothing severe though so no worries!

 Take that lunch outside today!

A look at the weather this week, courtesy of the NWS in Lubbock, TX.

A New Year, A New Bri?

A common motto for the New Year is to create "a new me". I can't say that is entirely a) realistic or b) necessary. Not that I don't have my faults, of course I do! I'm human. Not to mention I also come from Boston and at the right time you can catch me saying my ah's real funny. But honestly, I am so pleased with the way things have gone after graduation that to say I want to "turn my life around" would be a complete lie. If anything, I want to keep trekking full steam ahead. 


This is not to say that I didn't make my fair share of resolutions. Some think that New Years resolutions are ridiculous, unpractical and solely to keep gyms disgustingly packed for the month of January. All of this has a hint of truth to it, but having goals keeps you motivated in the whirlwind of life. 


Now as long as you make your goals reasonable, they can't be deemed ridiculous. (this of course is a variable shaped in the eyes of the resolution maker and of course the one judging them) For instance, don't make your resolution to fly to the moon unless of course a) you've got the money or b) you're an astronaut. Also keep in mind most private companies that are designing tourist space flights won't be ready until at least 2011.  


But no matter how within reach a goal maybe, those who aren't willing to sacrifice for it, put the time in or devote the energy necessary to accomplish it won't achieve jack squat. I know this advice is common knowledge, but it is amazing to me how many people don't take it to heart.  


I love the idea behind a New Years resolution, now if people could just stick to it...which brings me to my resolutions! 


The first is one that I actually made last fall, but I'm going to count it anyways. It is to run a half marathon, which I'll be doing February 7th along the sandy shore of Huntington Beach, California. If you want to check out the race click here for the link. It's coming up soon, I'm so excited!


The second is, now don't laugh, to learn Spanish..or I guess you could say relearn Spanish. Now anyone who knows me knows that I'm a math/science brained person who can barely speak in the English language, never mind a foreign one. Okay, so I'm a little hard on myself, I mean heck I am on television so I must be doing something right linguistically. Though after taking Spanish for 3 years in high school, 1 year in college and living in Miami for 4 years I can barely say a complete sentence. In fact, my Dad used to console me during my rough semesters by teasing me that the reason why I'm not good at Spanish is because my hair isn't brown. 


Well I'm not planning on dyeing my hair anytime soon, but I will by the end of this year speak another language. Thankfully, I have moved to another Hispanic dominated state, so my surroundings combined with Rosetta Stone should get me to my goal in no time...right?


I hope your resolutions inspire you to make 2010 the best it can be!