Temperature Doing What?

I just loved the title of James’ Weather Xtreme Video post this afternoon, “Meteorological Bonanza.” That surely described the variety of weather Central Alabama saw today with rain, rainbows, sleet, snow, graupel, and some amazing cloud formations. All in all, I think the day certainly qualified for the title James bestowed on it.

And the temperature change today has also been all over the place. Here is the temperature trace from the weather station at my home in Helena.

As you can see from the red line tracing the temperatures today, it seemed that the temperature had no idea what to do. This trace is a long way, a very long way, from resembling what is the typical temperature change that we expect to see in a 24 hour period. The temperature bottomed out around 5 am, a little earlier that you might expect since the lowest temperature usually occurs around sunrise. But then it climbed only about three degrees before plummeting into the upper 30s around 1 pm, about the time we begin to expect to see our highest temperature for the day. That temperature drop beginning around 8:00 am, by the way, is associated with the onset of rain. Like many folks, I had some sleet when the precipitation first began.

And then as the rain tapers off, the temperature begins climbing until just before 9:00 pm, the time of day where we typically expect to see the temperature begin to lose ground as the sun sets. And at this writing, my high for the day occurred around midnight at 45 with the lowest temperature of the day, 39, coming between noon and 1 pm. But with the temperature profile climbing, we may see a higher value yet as we get close to midnight.

What a day!

-Brian-

Category: Alabama's Weather