Memorial Day Weekend is often called the “Unofficial Start of Summer”.  Well THIS weekend, it will officially FEEL like summer, as temperatures soar under an upper level ridge.  Before we get there, however, we do actually have the chance for some rain!  Here’s what’s happening…

This morning, a cold front sits off to our west.  There were scattered showers along this front yesterday, but as night fell and the atmosphere cooled, the showers dissipated.  You can see all that’s left this morning are areas of clouds:

We’ll be partly sunny today, and as we heat up this afternoon… we are probably going to see a few more showers (perhaps a thunderstorm) fire up along that front as it moves into the Miami Valley.  Not everyone will see the rain, however, and a lot of spots will continue to be dry… as we warm up into the mid-80s.  As I blogged yesterday, the front doesn’t really clear the Miami Valley.  It looks like it will stop in our southern counties late today, and then head back north as a warm front tonight.  This keeps us in the summer-like airmass… and as that upper ridge builds in over the weekend, we’ll be in the 90s for the first time this year!  We probably won’t hit any records, however… below I have compared the forecast high each day to the record on that date:

                               FORECAST…… RECORD           

SATURDAY:        90°………………..95°
SUNDAY:               92°………………..98°
MONDAY:             90°………………..98°

Most of the holiday weekend looks dry, with a 20% chance of a pop-up shower/thunderstorm on Memorial Day.  Best shot is in the afternoon, as we see daytime heating.  Then, thunderstorms look likely on Tuesday as a cold front moves through… and much cooler air will follow!  Tuesday’s highs are in the 80s, and the rest of the week, we’ll likely be in the 70s.

If you watched 2 News Today on Thursday, you saw the current Storm Team 2 Forecast Center for the last time!  Shortly after the show, demo began on this set… here’s how I left it:

And what I came into today…

We are very excited about going High Definition this summer, and we’re building an entirely new Forecast Center!  In the meantime, you will only see us on-air at the main anchor desk… and at the weather wall.  Our work area (which is actually part of the Forecast Center) has been moved to a temporary location.  If you watched 2 News back in the 80s/90s, you may remember the OLD old Forecast Center.  That is where we are set up now, until the new HD set is complete.  Before today, this space was not really used… and this is where the demo started last week.  Here’s the timeline of old forecast center demo…

The temporary office is not very fancy… but we still have access to all of our weather computers… so forecasting and graphics-making still run smoothly.  HOWEVER, this space is physically located BEHIND the news set.  So it’s tough to communicate with anyone–anchors, studio techs, etc.  And we’re a lot farther from the weather WALL, so it takes longer to get there.  If we creep into the shot a little late over the next few weeks, you’ll know why   We will keep you posted on things here, and I hope you all have a fantastic Memorial Day weekend!

Jamie
www.twitter.com/WDTN_Jamie
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