Mon 09/14/09 Ike Anniversary

This is the one year anniversary of hurricane Ike sweeping through. I recall welcoming watching the remnants of Ike. We had taken a perch on our deck that morning to watch the clouds and feel the wind pick up. Then things went sour. The wind continued to roar. We knew something really odd was happening. Expecting a power failure I headed to Lagrange for gas for our generator. It was a harrowing trip as trees and limbs were falling all along US 42 and Highway 53.

Oddly, our station missed measuring the highest winds. I really can't explain it, but our high wind that day was measured at 21 mph. I'm sure we had 60-65 mph gusts. The station "samples" the wind every second or so. One theory is that the largest gusts came between "samples." But, that would be quite a coincidence. It's still a mystery to me because the station has been pretty accurate with wind otherwise.

The National Weather Service has a nice synopsis and a bunch of pictures of the damage here.

Allen

Sun 9/13/09 7:00pm

(Click chart to see larger image)

The chart above compares our average monthly temperature here at our weather station. You can see that we had a warmer spring than last year, but our summer was significantly cooler. I'll update this chart as we go through the year.

As for the remodeling of the website, most of the important functions have been returned. The almanac is back. We'll get some other functions added over the next few days including the time-lapse movie.

Allen

Sat 9/12/09 9:25pm

Quiet, gentle night. Nothing but crickets. To my hunting friends who count on the sunrise/sunset and moon info, it's still available on the main menu. Just click on "Detailed Conditions." This page also has other details like dewpoint, precip and much more. I'm working on getting it on the front page.
Allen

Sat 9/12/09 2:35pm

I've been working on the website to make it leaner, faster and easier to use. Many more functions will be added but I'm moving away from functions running automatically. I hope you like the new design.
Allen

Fri 9:44am

What? No morning fog?!! Soft, pretty September morning.

Allen

Sep 9 2009 7:22am

Fog starting to develop now. Not as dense as yesterday morning yet, but continuing to close in.

Allen

Sep 9 2009 6am

We have a dense fog advisory until mid to late morning. So far, the fog has not developed in northeastern Oldham.

Allen

Aug 27 Early Morning

Another power failure on the sensors last night. Power should be restored, soon.

Allen

Wed Later Evening

For those interested in the hurricane, Here's the very latest on Bill. The picture above (click to enlarge) shows the potential storm tracks and the water surface temps.

Allen

Wed Mid Evening

Sure is juicy out there tonight. Strong storms in central KY. Storms in central IN. Right now, it looks like the IN storms are tracking northeast. There is some development in southern Illinois that could creep in here overnight. Not severe at this time.

Mon Late Evening

Smarter heads than mine seem to think that Claudette will rain herself out before bringing much moisture here. Good news for any flood fears.

Tue Early Evening

We have a little "hailer" storm that looks to be moving through southern Trimble. Unless it turns it will miss us here in Sycamore.

Mon Early Evening - Storm Report

We received a wet microburst gust of 30 mph at the beginning of the storm . That was followed by straight line winds that hit 34 mph around 6:28pm. Small stations like ours often give a reading a little lower than actual. So, there's a good bet there were some 35 to 40 mph gusts around the county. Our lights are on here . . . for now. In this part of the county you just never know if they'll drop out after a storm. We received .87 inch of rain from this storm and it's still raining.

Tue Early Evening

You can check out this radar estimate to see where the heaviest rain fell. Sycamore Run got between 3 and 4 inches. (Click image to enlarge)
Allen

Thu Evening 10:50pm

Heavy rain moving through the area. Southern Indiana is getting the heaviest but that means it's tracking right into Oldham County, sparing Louisville somewhat in comparison. This looks like a significant weather event to me. Hope I'm wrong.
Allen

Wed 7/29 Late Morning

We received 1 3/4 inches of rain from the system overnight and through the morning hours.
Allen

Wed Mid Morning

We had a power failure on our sensor overnight, so we didn't begin measuring rainfall until about 8:30AM.
Allen

Fri Evening

This blog is on a short vacation.
Allen

Wed Noon

Here's AccuWeather's winter forecast.
Allen

Wed Early Morning

I've been listening to New Zealand radio and they are announcing that the danger from a damaging tsunami is minimal. No one is being advised to evacuate.

Here - showers are on the way for late morning.
Allen

Mon Early, Early AM

Showers that were headed our way fell apart. We started irrigating here last night. Soil moisture in this part of the county is very low.

Mon Late Evening

We were treated to a spectacular view of the International Space Station tonight. The station was being trailed by another spacecraft which made for a real show. July is going to be an exceptionally good month for viewing the ISS.

Thanks to John Belski, here's the viewing schedule for Louisville. (Which is close enough for Oldham.)

Allen

Mon Mid Day

Fri Late Evening

Looks like a good chance of rain for the 4th and the 5th. I know it's tough on the celebrations but we really need the precip. We've hit 63 centibars of soil moisture and that's moving into the dry side. We hope to do some planting and cultivating tomorrow before the rain/storms hit after 2pm. We've harvested our first cherry and sauce tomatoes in the past few days plus quite a few a few peppers and cucumbers. If you want a great bread and butter pickle recipe, send me an email. It's been a good growing season so far.

Allen

Mon Mid Morning

Looks like very little chance of rain for the next few days. There's been no rain for several days already here in the northeastern part of the county. So, our soil moisture is on the decline.
Allen

Sun Late Evening

Cool and nice!
Allen

Fri Mid Morning

Here's a short radar video of the noisy storms that swept through before dawn. Here at Sycamore Run we got .78 inch of rain, plenty of lightning and a high wind of 38 mph.
Allen

Thu Late Evening

Enough T-Storm activity around to bring a cool breeze and distant lightning. Nothing close at this hour moving our way. A passing storm overnight -- perhaps?
Allen

Sun Late Evening

Whew! We worked in the garden a couple of times today. I was drenched with perspiration both times. I stopped work frequently for water and cooling breaks. Keep an eye on the heat index and our warning section. Heat may not be as exciting to observe, but it can kill you just as dead as lightning or a tornado.
Allen

Sun Late Morning

Happy Father's Day and Happy Solstice. For my friends in the southern hemisphere - glad I'm not you! For you, it's the first day of winter. Can you say "OK yank - just you wait another six months" with an Aussie accent?

Sat Early Morning

No damage reports from the storm that passed north of us into Madison/Carrollton. Just rain, lightning and a few gusty winds here as the line has weakened.

Fri Late Afternoon

Our heat index hit 101.6°F at 3:00pm. That's our high for the day so far. The air temp hit 90.5°F at 4:40pm.
Allen

Fri Early Afternoon

What a scorcher! I noticed that our heat index almost hit 100 in the last few minutes. The dewpoints are in the mid 70's. Tornado watch in effect from Indy northward. Will be interesting to see if the severe stuff sags into our area.
Allen

Thu Mid Evening

We dodged the bullet today with today's derecho directing most of its force south of us. There's a good chance of some more severe weather tomorrow night. Check out Henry Margisity's observations.

We've added a scrolling warning box and a warning map. To enlarge the warning map just click on it to see the image and a legend. (See above)

Just a reminder that all of the radar images and maps on my site are updated constantly - usually each minute. To see the most recent warnings and images you MUST refresh/reload your browser. They do not refresh automatically. The exception is the "Live" weather showing current conditions (Temp, Hum, Wind, etc.)...that updates every few seconds all by itself.

Allen

Thu Late Morning

Here's a wide radar and satellite view of today's explosion of storms. Notice that there's more to our west. (click to enlarge) Oldham escaped the big wind, but we're in for quite a bit of rain and we still have a lightning risk.

Allen

Tue Mid Evening 2

Here are your Oldham County precip totals from the most recent storms. (Click to enlarge)

Allen

Tue Mid Evening

The remnants of today's clouds at sunset almost look like a mountain range.

Allen

Tue Early Morning

Here's part of the mesoscale discussion on the storms to our west -

HAIL TO 2 INCHES IN DIAMETER...THUNDERSTORM WIND GUSTS TO 70MPH...AND DANGEROUS LIGHTNING ARE POSSIBLE IN THESE AREAS.

Mon Late Evening

Wow - look what's blowing up to our west tonight! Looks like a bomb on radar and satellite. (Click to enlarge) Tomorrow could be interesting depending on the amount of heating we get from sunshine.
Allen

Sun Mid Evening

Wall cloud associated with the storm near Madison. Seems to be moving this way.
Allen

Thur Early Evening 2

This is a cell phone capture of tonight's low wall clouds that prompted some funnel cloud reports.
Allen

Thur Early Evening

We had a pronounced wall cloud move through Oldham County around 7:05pm. There didn't seem to be definite rotation, but it was threatening looking enough to have some residents think they might be seeing a funnel cloud.
Allen

Thursday Mid Morning

This graphic shows the rain totals since the storms started yesterday morning. Here at Sycamore Run we got a storm total of 1.4 inch, a little less than the radar indicates. You can see that some parts of Oldham got more than 2 inches. (Click to enlarge)

Allen

Wed Early Afternoon

Clearing to our west. The sun will be out soon and temps will rise. More storms later. This graphic and info from our new "F5 Data" feed. Click to enlarge.

Allen

Wed Mid Morning

They look spooky, but nothing severe in this line of storms. I barely finished getting my grass mowed before they rolled in. There is a long line of storms stretching from West Virginia, through here and northwest into central Illinois along a front. We could see a train of storms throughout the day and into tonight.

Allen

Fri Late Evening

After passing the test I'm now a "qualified" storm spotter. It looks like a worthwhile program and the study material is pretty comprehensive.

Allen

Fri Early, Early Morning

We're finally clearing after a couple of rainy days. We needed the moisture, but the cloudy, cold snap was downright depressing. The view of the moon is dappled with scattered clouds at this early morning hour as the clearing progresses. The lights from the broadcast towers in the knobs of Indiana can be seen, faintly. Also visible are the lights from the caravan of UPS flights into Louisville. Goodnight, moon.
Allen

Wed Mid Morning

The sun is still low in the east and it made a sharp contrast to the storm clouds moving through the south central part of the county.
Allen

Wed Early Morning

Here are the rain totals in inches from overnight. Click on image to enlarge. About .10 inch here at Sycamore Run. Other parts of the county did better. The heaviest rain was north and east of Oldham.
Allen

Tue Late, Late Evening

I just noticed that our station is now the only Kentucky station reporting to the StrikeStar US lightning detector network. We have an "excellent" up-time rating of 99.9% - no easy feat.

http://www.strikestarus.com/StrikeStarUS_Stats.html

Allen

Tue Late Evening

Plenty of wind and lightning from tonight's storms. 31 mph gust recorded at 9:55pm. Rain started at 10:33pm here at Sycamore Run. Let's see how much we get. Most of the moisture has stayed in the northern parts of Oldham so far. But, if it holds together, there's another line of showers right behind this one that looks like it will give the entire county some precip.
Allen

Tue Mid Evening

We sure could use some rain. There are plenty of rain-making cells out there. Hope some of them track our way here in Sycamore Run. If you look closely you'll see a swarm of bees in one of our ornamental cherry trees.
Allen

Sat Late Evening

Nice late night shower formed right over us around 11pm.

Allen

Wed Mid Afternoon

Yippee! Rain! A line of storms formed strongly west of us and then started to weaken as they neared the river. Luckily, one of the strongest cells held together and gave much of Oldham a pretty nice shower. Rain started falling here in the northeast party of the county at 2:51PM. At the peak of the storm the rain rate was 1.92 inches per hour. That didn't last long, of course. So far (as of 3:08PM) we've received .09 inches. We'll get a little more from this storm and then there's hope for some more rain this evening as things are firing up a bit out west again.
Allen

Tue Late Afternoon

Soil is getting pretty dry. I hope one of these rainmakers that have been skirting around us will mosey over our way. Eastern Jefferson County got a pretty good shower about a half-hour ago. That one looks like it might give us something in Oldham.
Allen

Fri Mid Morning

Today is an "Ozone Action Day." If you don't know what that is, go here.

Monday Mid Morning

No frost at all here. Never got any colder overnight than the low 40's.

Wed Late Evening

The wind is really kicking up. The house is rattling a bit.
Allen

Wed Early Evening

Those of use who rushed to mow the grass today lucked out with a mostly dry afternoon. Most of the rain stayed north.
Allen

Fri Mid Evening

We now have a capture of the camera visible on the front page along with the most common data. To get the most recent picture and data, just reload the page. This gives a summary at-a-glance of conditions. Those who want more detail can scroll down to the live data feed.
Allen

Fri Mid Morning

Some erroneous readings this morning due to a power failure on the station. We obviously got rain overnight but it didn't register. Power has been restored.
Allen

Thu Mid Morning

Foggy this morning. Some Indiana schools have a 2 hour delay due to fog. OK - enough with the gloomy weather. We saw a peek of sun last Saturday and a sunny afternoon on Tuesday. Other than that, it just seems like cloudy, dreary weather all the time. We have a slight risk of scattered, severe storms this afternoon. I'd almost welcome the change.
Allen

Tue Early Evening

It was a pleasure to meet Kevin Jeffries this afternoon. He was in the neighborhood and stopped by to say hello. Kevin has several farms in the area, including the corn and soybean fields that are planted right here in Sycamore Run. We have a link to his weather station over in Ballardsville in our links section. Or, you can click here.

Kevin's one of several folks who have told me that they find our soil moisture and temp data quite useful.

Sun Mid Morning

Derby Day never got as bright as we hoped. But at least the heavy rains held off. Rain is ending here. More rain is in the forecast for the afternoon.

Derby Day - Late Morning

Starting to clear here. Precip looks like it's going to stay south of Louisville area. This could turn out to be a spectacular Derby Day!

Fri Mid Evening

Kentucky Oaks came off without weather problem. The parties got a little wet early this evening. And Derby looks...well, drippy. Not weather related, but I thought you might enjoy Oaks winner Rachel Alexandra's baby pictures.

Thu Mid Evening

This was taken last weekend. We had the perfect Derby weather one week early. Oh, well. Looks like a wet, maybe even stormy Oaks and the Derby day outlook isn't much better.

Tue Mid Morning

It started raining here at 9:08AM. It looks like we're in for a pretty good soaking. You can blame/thank me for this because I put about 1/2 inch of water on the veg garden last night. So, of course, it rains. If I had not irrigated last night in hope of rain, we'd be dry today. Murphy's law.
Allen

Fri Late Evening

Looks like our UV sensor has failed. Update coming soon on the status.
Allen

Fri Mid Morning

Winds started kicking up a little after 9am. We've had a gust up to 28 mph so far. (See chart-click to enlarge)
Allen

Wed Late Evening

I'm experimenting with an audio feed of weather data. It's at the top of the left column at http://www.oldhamcountyweather.com.

Or you can click here to listen.

Allen

Mon Early Evening

The early evening showers moving to the east gave us a pretty rainbow.
Allen

Sun Mid Afternoon

We've already received over 1/2 inch of rain from this system and it's not over yet. Notice the T-storm watch southwest of KY. It will be interesting to see if we get any of that later.

This is a great rain for the plants. No downpours (yet), just a nice steady soaking.
Allen

Fri Late Morning

100% chance of severe BEAUTIFUL today and tomorrow. Break out the grills and the sunglasses.
Allen

Mon Early Evening

Our stormy afternoon has given way to a beautiful but cool evening. Sitting on the deck with a light jacket and sunglasses.
Allen

Sun Late Evening

We had some server issues which made the site unavailable for a portion of this evening. Sorry.

For the spring/summer storm season I'm experimenting with a module in the left column, near the bottom, which while give quick links to the Storm Prediction Center (SPC) watches and watch status reports. We'll see how it works out. Hope everyone had a good weekend. Looks like a wet spell for the next couple of days, at least.
Allen

Fri Afternoon Hail Video

We had about 5 minutes of pea sized hail this afternoon around 1:15 as a small, but intense cell passed over our area. Short video above.
Allen

Fri Early Afternoon

We all freak about thunderstorm winds. But, flash floods are the number one killer from storms. The second biggest killer is cloud to ground lightning. This video shows the danger. You'll also see why the NWS tells us to stay away from doors and windows during a storm.

The production is pretty corny and over-the-top and the good lightning stuff doesn't start until about a minute in. Plus, it's real people reacting to some real scary events, so there is some "graphic" language. Don't play if you're offended by cursing.

Mon Early Evening

A bit of a wintry mix just started here at Sycamore Run. Looks like freezing rain, but the surface temps are too warm for it to cause any problem. (Knock-on-wood)

I was told that flowers like tulips should be OK through tonight and tomorrow. I won't take that chance. I went ahead and covered mine with boxes, and flower pots. If you use plastic, be careful. When the sun comes out you can bake them unless you get it off promptly.
Allen

Sat Early Morning

We got down to 35 around 7am. Just a little scattered frost. Plants should be OK.
Allen

Mon Late Afternoon

We dodged a hard freeze last night - but just barely. We went down to 31.6 at 8:06 this morning. But, we warmed quickly and I really don't see any damage to the daffodils.

Looks like we'll be safe from freezes for the next few days.
Allen

Sat Late Evening

Strong winds with the frontal passage. House is rumbling. Temp dropping rapidly.
Allen

Mon Early Evening

The bluebirds are back in in full mating mode. They were fighting today over nesting areas and mates. I snapped a quick video.

Tue Mid Evening

We had two nights in a row of spectacular weather for star gazing and seeing spacecraft. Last night the International Space Station flew overhead around 8:48pm followed just a few minutes later by the shuttle. They docked today and we were treated to another flyover around 9:15. Tonight's view wasn't as good as last night's. But, anytime I see spacecraft, I'm impressed.

If you'd like to track the ISS - go here.















Our UV index almost entered the "high" range today and I have the red face to prove it.

Sat Mid Afternoon

A nice, gentle rain today. Just a perfect rate of moisture to really help green things up and make the flowers bloom.

Our cherry tree is attracting 40 or 50 house finches at a time. They perch in the tree and hop right over to the feeder, which they are emptying fast.
Allen

Tue Early Evening

Don't know if it's a record, but we reached a high of 77 degrees at 3:26 pm today. Since Louisville set a record of 78, we can be pretty sure today was a record for Oldham, too.
Allen

Sun Mid Evening 2

As we took the trash cans to the street tonight, we thought we heard another firm sign of spring - Spring Peepers! Not to be confused with the Kildeer (or Plovers) screaming from the sky (sounding very peeperish themselves.) Instead, it was that steady background sound of "sleighbells" or baby chick-like peeps that the little frogs make. Wow. Seems early. Guess not, since they usually appear after the ice is melted for good. Whatever the timing, they are very, very welcome! If you go to this page there's a brief recording of some peepers. You'll immediately recognize the sound.

Sun Mid Evening

I've noticed our soil temp rising. Crabgrass starts to germinate when soil temperatures hit about 55°F for 24-48 hours. Our soil temp probe is 5 inches deep. So, it's likely a little warmer near the surface.

There seem to be a lot of myths about crabgrass germination. I found this page interesting.

If you want to follow our local soil moisture and temperature my data page is here.
By the way, we never irrigate near our moisture probe, so it reflects only naturally provided moisture.
Allen

Sun Early Evening

We didn't get much rain from the line of storms that passed through over last hour. Just .02 inch. Looks like other parts of Oldham got a pretty good soaking. I was looking forward to a good rain. We're on the dry side here. At least we got a nice rainbow!
Allen

Sat Early Evening

Windy! Some scattered power outage in Louisville. Nothing serious. Our UV index was pretty high today. It peaked at 5.9. That's moderate but ALMOST in the high range. So, if your face and arms are feeling a little warm this evening that's the reason. Provided you were out in the sun today, of course. :-)
Allen

Tue Late Evening

Even with abundant sunshine, we never made it above freezing here at Sycamore Run. But, there's sun in our spirits as spring seems on our doorstep. If we reach our projected low overnight of 18, and our high tomorrow of 50, that's a 32 degree temp swing. Friday's forecast high is 68! The tulips will be blooming soon.

Allen

Sun Early Evening

Welcome to the official start of meteorological spring! Astronomical spring is still about 20 days away.
Allen

Fri Late Morning

Big wind last night. We had a 47 mph gust at 3:46AM. That one woke me up.
Allen

Wed Late Evening

It's been especially windy here today. Not complaining! It was warm and sunny today:-)
The March winds seem a bit early.
Allen

Mon Late Evening

We never made it above freezing today but the solar radiation melted most of the snow. High pressure, bright and clear.
Allen

Sat Early Evening

We got about an inch of snow in Oldham County. It didn't stick to the roads so I call this a great snow!
Allen

Wed Afternoon 2pm

Line of storms looked sort of fierce as they approched but lost their punch before arriving.

This radar snap shows a cell that developed just about 2pm northeast of Sycamore Run. I also snapped a picture of the clouds associated with it.