60s and 70s Greatest Hits

A big fat high pressure area parked over the Mid Atlantic region is allowing a strong dose of "Mellow Yellow" through the bright blue sky. Along with a "Wind-a velocity nil", it's a "So Fine" day here in the Washington DC metro area. If you don't have your mower ready for the season yet, it's "too late baby, now." With the weekend's rains and the "Good Day Sunshine", the roar of the 2-cycle engine will soon be abroad in the land.

Surface weather map at 1pm today from IntelliWeather

By early afternoon, temperatures had reached or exceeded 60 in all locations, but the dewpoints in the upper 20s or low 30s (except Ft. Belvoir!) made it almost impossible to break a sweat. Winds were variable mostly under 5 mph.

Tonight and Tomorrow

Lows tonight will be from the mid 40s city to upper 30s in the colder 'burbs under mostly clear skies. Tomorrow will be much like today, but with temperatures warming to around 70.

Omnimedia

The PBS NOVA science series is showing its annual rerun of "Hunt for the Supertwister" tomorrow night (8pm locally on WETA, channel 26). The program, which I have now seen twice since it was first broadcast 2 years ago, puts a lot of emphasis on Discovery-Channel-style storm chasing, but it has much better production values than the Weather Channel's "It Could Happen Tomorrow" series. It also manages to get in some real science, including by meteorology professor/storm chasing pioneer Howie Bluestein of the University of Oklahoma.

Image from pbs.org

Party On

A tip of the hat to site visitor PJ, who pointed out that the local National Weather Service Forecast Office in Sterling is inviting the community to an open house the last weekend of this month, from 9 to 5 on Saturday the 29th and noon to 5 on Sunday the 30th. There will be presentations on "Aviation and Marine Operations, Fire Weather, Tropical Weather, Severe Weather, CO-OP Program, and Hydrology." You can also attend a Skywarn class to become a certified weather spotter.