I stepped outside this morning expecting to be greeted by a deluge of either rain or sleet. What Ike and I found instead was a mix of rain and snow. The road was wet, but there did not seem to be any ice forming. The snow on the driveway had softened enough so it was possible to walk without landing on my imagination. Looking to my west right now I see a
considerable amount of fairly dense fog, and that is no surprise, but it was not forecast by N.O.A.A. With the recorded temperature above freezing overnight we did not have the projected freezing rain or sleet that was predicted. I did not stay up to observe it, but I do think the cloud cover forecast was correct.
For today the N.W.S. has a rather complex forecast for our area of Wilton, Maine. They suggest that we will start off with some form of icing, either sleet or freezing rain. As the temperature rises we can expect that to change to rain and then decrease to light scattered showers for this afternoon. The cloud cover can be expected to decline a little until around 16:00 hours when it may fall precipitously (100%/96%/91%/54%). There appears to be a good supply of inclement weather on the NEXRAD regional composite radar moving in our direction. The Weather Underground model forecast maps indicate that we will be dealing with this system until around midnight tonight in some form or another. It will be interesting to see which of the prognosticators is correct.
My Weather Stick is responding to the 86% relative humidity by frowning. All three of the electronic instruments forecast foul weather with falling barometric pressure. In fact the barometric pressure is already quite low. The recorded low temperatures this morning are all very close at 32.1°F, 33.3°F and 33.3°F. Apparently they are all on the same page for a change. I think we will deal with this system at least for the daylight hours, and maybe into this evening. Take it slow out there because there may still be patches of ice on some of the roadways as you travel on your regular commute.
Low Temperature (°F): 32.1
Current Temperature (°F): 32.1
Relative Humidity (%): 86%
Dew Point (°F): 28.4
Barometric Pressure (in Hg): 29.64
Heat Index (°F): N/A
Wind Direction: Calm
Wind Speed (mph): 0.0
Wind-Chill (°F): 32.1
Precipitation (Type): Rain/Snow
Amount (Inches): 0.02
Cloud Cover (AM): Overcast
Cloud Type: Stratus
Weather Stick: Down
Comparative data for the overnight.
Temperature:32°F/35.4°F//32°F/34.1°F//31°F/32.9°F//28°F/32.3°F
Relative Humidity: 51%/67%//61%/69%//72%/76%//92%/82%
The N.W.S. forecast the temperatures correctly for all four forecast points overnight. They only missed the 19:00 hour forecast of the relative humidity. This was approaching a great job, very good anyway.
Forecast data for today.
Temperature: 36°F/37°F/39°F/34°F.
Relative Humidity: 85%/89%/92%/72%

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