April 27, 2014 Sunday Night Weather Hangout

At 8:30 pm Sunday Night, Meteorologist Ryan Wichman will host his weekly 'Weather Hangout' on Google+.

The show takes questions from Ryan's Facebook and Twitter pages to answer and gives a summary of the forecast for the week ahead. If you are on Google +, be sure to add Ryan's page HERE. A live stream of the show will be offered here, with a video replay shortly to follow after the conclusion.



 

High Great Lakes Ice Coverage Continues

The record books will reflect upon this winter for many decades to come but as the slow thaw of spring continues winter isn't relenting completely in one aspect. Great Lakes ice. While tracking ice on the lakes isn't that unusual well into mid-April, the amount of ice is certainly eyebrow raising.

As of April 20th, the Great Lakes are still nearly 36% covered in ice.

Compare that to the past two winters when ice coverage struggled or didn't even reach that level in the heart of the cold season. Keep the graphic below in mind...the average last date for ice coverage of 30% is late March into early April. We are well past that and still counting. 

And the record for latest 30% ice coverage on the Great Lakes: 

Lake Erie Boating Incident -- A Weather Related Accident???

It is a cold, hard fact that boating in April can offer some of the most treacherous and life threatening conditions on Lake Erie.  Late Wednesday evening, four boaters were reported missing.  By early Thursday morning, the stark discover of a partially capsized boat has been a dreaded discovery.  The temptation of sunshine and warmer spring days lure many to the icy cold waters of Lake Erie for early season fishing and recreation.  Here is the high resolution visible satellite image of Lake Erie on Wednesday, the morning of April the 16th.

The clear and sunny morning hid the dangers of a cold and eventually brisk afternoon on the lake.

 

Early morning temperatures were in the 30s with relative light southerly winds of less then 10 kts.  I'd imagine the lake looked glassy smooth, the total appearance of a great opportunity for venturing out onto the lake.  However, after 5 PM a very brisk and gusty east wind increased to 10 to 20 kts with occasional gust over 20 kts.  All experienced boaters know an east wind means business and bad news with very dangerous boating conditions on the western basin of Lake Erie.  The easterly winds maximize the "fetch" or distance it travels unobstructed over the open waters of Lake Erie.  This wind would quickly increase wave heights and lake currents turning a tranquil morning into a dangerous concoction of early spring boating.    

 

Here's the observed weather conditions from Wednesday on South Bass Island.

 

 

 

From 6 PM to 1 AM Wednesday night, wind speeds dramatically increased from a calm morning to a gusty east wind of 14 to 19 kts into the late afternoon and evening.

 

 

 

To follow that up, here is the wind gusts during 6 PM to 1 AM Wednesday evening.  Wind gusts from the east ranged from 18 to 21 kts for 7 consecutive hours.

 

Take a look at some of the modeled forecasts of this gusty east wind, highlighting the danger of an easterly wind fetch into western Lake Erie.  This created a corridor of wind gusts in excess of 20 kts from the Lake Erie Islands into the western basin of Lake Erie 

 

Turbulent lake currents in the vicinity of Middle Bass and South Bass Island south to Sandusky Bay and west to Maumee Bay State Park were a direct result of the increase in the east winds into the evening.

 

 

While stunning in beauty and full of recreation, it is unfortunate lives are lost every year due to the dangers of Lake Erie.  Thoughts and prayers go out to the families and the four individuals that are missing in the wake of their boat that was found partially capsized.  The icy cold lake water temperature of 44° does not offer much forgiveness when accidents happen this time of year.  It is a difficult time to remind everyone of the important lesson that early season spring boating should be reserved for very experienced and well equipped individuals. 

 

~Meteorologist Chris Vickers

Twitter: https://twitter.com/ChrisWTOL

 

 

April 6th, Sunday Night Weather Hangout

At 8:30 pm Sunday Night, Meteorologist Ryan Wichman will host his weekly 'Weather Hangout' on Google+.

The show takes questions from Ryan's Facebook and Twitter pages to answer and gives a summary of the forecast for the week ahead. If you are on Google +, be sure to add Ryan's page HERE. A live stream of the show will be offered here, with a video replay shortly to follow after the conclusion.

       

Heavy Rain Chances this Week

We all know the saying: "April showers...bring May flowers." We just didn't know Mother Nature could keep in line with our calendars so well. Only a few days into the new month and we are looking at our first rounds of heavy springtime rains. Here is the set-up, followed by river forecasts and severe weather threat levels:

Currently a storm system is moving into the western United States. A frontal system is laid out across the Midwest and into the Great Lakes acting as a highway for this storm to ride the next few days. The path of this system will allow for it bring with it some Pacific moisture as well as pick-up moisture from the Gulf of Mexico. A recipe for heavy rains.

As the evolution of this system becomes a bit more clear it is likely that the heaviest rain from this system will be dropped along a St. Louis to Indianapolis to Columbus line. 3-5" of rain will be possible there. Over Northwest Ohio and Southeast Michigan 1-2" of rainfall appear more likely. Here is the latest forecast from the WPC:

Our RPM Forecast model shows a bit more detailed rainfall forecast totals, very inline with the forecast above: 

Keep those rain totals in mind we are not expecting a major flooding event for local rivers but there certainly will be a rise and lots of standing water in fields/yards. Here are the latest projections (as of Tuesday PM) for a few local rivers:

At this point the severe weather threat appears it will be confined more to the west and south. We will watch any threat that may evolve but right now heavier rains will be the main focus of this system Wednesday PM - Friday AM.