Good morning to everyone! 

It's beginning to look like Friday and Saturday will be our rainy days this week, as an approaching cold front threatens the area with thunderstorms. 

The Atlanta National Weather Service office had this to say in their morning forecast discussion:

STILL LOOKS LIKE BETTER MOISTURE AND CHANCE FOR WIDESPREAD HEAVIER RAIN IS CENTERED ON FRIDAY... BUT THE CHANCE FOR STRONGER THUNDERSTORMS APPEARS TO BE HIGHER SATURDAY AS INSTABILITY IS GREATER AND BETTER UPPER DYNAMICS BRUSHES THE REGION WITH ENHANCED LOW-LEVEL LIFT ALONG THE FRONTAL BOUNDARY. LOW TO MID LAYER SHEAR IS NOT PARTICULARLY IMPRESSIVE EITHER DAY... BUT NOT ALL-TOGETHER ABSENT EITHER... SO ALTHOUGH WIDESPREAD SEVERE WEATHER DOES NOT LOOK LIKELY AT THIS TIME WE WILL HAVE TO KEEP AN EYE ON FORECAST TRENDS AS THE END OF THE WEEK APPROACHES. DRY AIR FILLS IN QUICKLY BEHIND THIS SYSTEM WITH PRECIPITATION ENDING SATURDAY EVENING.

The Storm Prediction Center is saying this right now... a little too far ahead for them to focus on, but this gives some idea what may be approaching our area:

SOME UNCERTAINTY LINGERS CONCERNING TIMING OF DEVELOPMENT. BUT... WITH THE ONSET OF INCREASING LARGE-SCALE FORCING FOR UPWARD VERTICAL MOTION...STORMS ARE EXPECTED TO INITIATE BY THE EVENING HOURS...IF NOT BEFORE... ACROSS ARKANSAS. LARGE HAIL SHOULD BE THE PRIMARY SEVERE THREAT INITIALLY... BUT UPSCALE GROWTH INTO A FORWARD PROPAGATING MESOSCALE CONVECTIVE SYSTEM SEEMS A DISTINCT POSSIBILITY AS ACTIVITY SPREADS EASTWARD TOWARD THE TENNESSEE VALLEY FRIDAY NIGHT. THIS MAY BE AIDED BY A 40-50+ KT LOWER/MID TROPOSPHERIC SPEED MAXIMUM...WHICH WILL CONTRIBUTE TO THE RISK FOR SEVERE WIND GUSTS.

Temperatures behind the cold front are... not cold. We should return to normal on Sunday with sunny skies and highs in the upper 60's to 70 degrees. Great day for an autocross, come out to the Turner Field lot with the big blue wall, it's free! 


I added a new page for the Atlantic sea conditions. Scroll down to wave height... wouldn't want to be out there.

She's really getting wound up today!

This is just a test post to a new blog platform. I have lots of tweaking and fixing up to do here, but I'll hopefully have most of it finished up in a few days so I can start doing the blog again!
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Good Sunday morning to everyone!
Looks like a dreary day today, with some light showers approaching from the west as the morning goes on. A good description for this weeks weather was given in an early morning Area Forecast discussion (which appear here on the FB page automatically now) by the Atlanta NWS office:

.LONG TERM /MONDAY NIGHT THROUGH SATURDAY/...

ROLLER-COASTER OF A FORECAST THROUGH THE EXTENDED FORECAST PERIOD. MEDIUM RANGE MODELS REMAIN FAIRLY CONSISTENT THROUGH THE MIDDLE OF THE WEEK... BUT DO DIVERGE SOMEWHAT CONCERNING THE MAGNITUDE OF THE SYSTEM HEADING INTO AND THROUGH THE WEEKEND.

FORECAST PERIOD STARTS OUT WITH A TOUCH OF WINTER RETURNING TO THE REGION. MODELS HAVE BEEN SLOWLY TRENDING A BIT WARMER FOR THE MONDAY NIGHT/TUESDAY MORNING TIME FRAME... BUT STILL BRING TEMPERATURES IN THE NORTH GEORGIA MOUNTAINS COOL ENOUGH FOR A CHANCE OF A RAIN/SNOW MIXTURE LATE MONDAY NIGHT/EARLY TUESDAY MORNING. LOWS REMAIN AT OR ABOVE FREEZING... HOWEVER TEMPERATURES WILL COOL ENOUGH FOR SOME OF THE PRECIPITATION TO REACH THE GROUND AS A MIXTURE... GENERALLY AT MODERATE TO HIGHER ELEVATIONS IN THE NORTH GEORGIA MOUNTAINS. POPS REMAIN ONLY CHANCE LEVELS RIGHT NOW AND POTENTIAL QPF NUMBERS ARE LIKEWISE QUITE LIMITED. NO ACCUMULATIONS ARE EXPECTED AT THIS TIME.
MUCH COLDER AIR STREAMS IN BEHIND THIS SYSTEM... AT LEAST BRIEFLY... WITH FREEZING TEMPERATURES LIKELY ACROSS ALL OF NORTH AND MUCH OF CENTRAL GEORGIA WEDNESDAY MORNING.

QUICK RECOVERY TO AT OR ABOVE SEASONAL NORMAL TEMPERATURES BY THE END OF THE WEEK AS THE UPPER LEVEL FLOW BEGINS TO AMPLIFY AND FLOW BECOMES MORE SOUTHWESTERLY ALOFT. DECENT RAIN CHANCES MOVE INTO THE STATE BY THE END OF THE WORK WEEK... AND LINGER THROUGH THE WEEKEND. MODELS ARE SHOWING MODERATE INSTABILITY ACROSS THE REGION THROUGH THE MAJORITY OF THIS PERIOD AND I HAVE INCLUDED THUNDER THROUGH THE LATTER PORTION OF THE EXTENDED FORECAST PERIOD.