debor046

This winter has been a mild one for much of the eastern half of the country.  In fact it has been well above normal in areas traditionally cold.  The mean temperature in South Carolina has been generally from 4 to 5 degrees F above normal for December. The mean temperature and anomalies for December through the 26th.  Image credit: NOAA/CPC. The outlook for this winter was for warmer than normal temperatures in South Carolina and drier than normal conditions.  This was primarily because of the La Nina that formed in the Pacific tropical region.  We had a La Nina last year and it was colder than normal.  The difference has been the Arctic Oscillation.  Last year it was in a negative phase which allowed much of the cold Arctic air to move south.  This year it has been in a positive phase which has kept the bitter cold air bottled up in the polar regions. Now there is about the be a sharp change in the weather pattern albeit brief.  The upper-le...

The day after Christmas saw the unveiling of our new Doppler Radar display.  What is this and why is it important? It may be hard for some of you to get excited over new technology.  When a kid gets a new video game as a present, he can't wait to get to it.  Parents are left scratching their head wondering what is the big deal.  At least he is happy with the new game.  Meanwhile, the kid is conquering the world with the new game.  He gets it. This new version is a significant upgrade to the current technology.  We decided to call it Max Storm Doppler Radar since the entire graphics suite is Trueview Max.  In reality almost all weather radars are Doppler radars now.  The transformation began in the late 1980s and was almost completely changed by 2005.  What is different is how the data is handled from the Doppler radar. Thus, this is a software upgrade to our weather computers.  The presentation has a higher resolution, can display ...

The light rain that fell across the Midlands yesterday made it the seventh Christmas in a row where measurable precipitation was recorded in Columbia.  If you include the trace amount recorded in 2004 late Christmas evening it is the eighth consecutive Christmas with any precipitation.  Eleven out of the last 15 years has seen some precipitation dating back to 1998. Thus, the trend has been one of a wet Christmas rather than a white Christmas. It is like a cruel joke from Mother Nature.  The rain was eliminated by all of the computer models on Friday and it looked like a nice weekend.  Then the models reintroduced rain on the Saturday morning run, but only briefly.  There was not a strong case for rain until the evening run.  By that time most newscasts were over for the day due to the Christmas Eve schedules. By Christmas morning it was obvious that it was going to rain much of the afternoon.  The rain ended by early evening and skies began to clear....