Forecasting Kitsap

What a day it has been! What started as a stormy and electrifying first half of our Friday is turning out to be mostly pleasant with frequent sunbreaks in between the ominous looking clouds above us. But that won’t last too long as more disturbances are headed our way. The National Weather Service has issued this Special Weather Statement as of 4:02 PM:

SHORT TERM FORECAST NATIONAL WEATHER SERVICE SEATTLE WA 402 PM PDT FRI JUL 13 2012
.NOW… THUNDERSTORMS WERE DEVELOPING OVER THE CENTRAL CASCADES LATE THIS AFTERNOON. THESE STORMS WILL MOVE WEST…REACHING THE SOUTH SOUND REGION AND SOUTHWEST INTERIOR OF WASHINGTON BY 7 PM. THUNDERSTORMS WILL CONTAIN DANGEROUS CLOUD-TO-GROUND LIGHTNING…INTENSE BURSTS OF RAINFALL…AND SMALL HAIL. IF YOU HEAR THUNDER…HEAD INDOORS.

Thunderstorm activity is likely tonight and through most of tomorrow, so be warned that we’ll still be up against some stormy weather until Sunday. It appears like we’ll see more sunshine tomorrow than we have today, so expect partly sunny skies with scattered thundershowers throughout the day. Highs will be a bit warmer in the mid 70s.

Sunday will be a little more on the cloudy and cool side as a stronger front moves into the region, bringing some rain showers with it. Highs will struggle to make it much beyond 70 degrees.

Monday through next week remains a complicated forecast to say the least. Highs will stay in the mid 70s most of the week with periods of clouds, sun and rain showers. Actually, believe it or not, the weather pattern for next weeks is pretty typical for this time of year, despite the drop in temperatures! And no, thunderstorms don’t look likely this time around

The long range forecast still advertises near normal temperatures with equally as normal precipitation over the next 10 days, so maybe it’ll be good to introduce normality in the forecast again

Stay safe everyone!

Matthew Leach

Forecasting Kitsap

Send any cool weather photos or videos to: forecastingkitsap@live.com

**UPDATED 10:56 AM, Friday July 13th, 2012.

**As you’re out storm chasing today, snap some cool  photos and send them to me at: forecastingkitsap@live.com !

.NOW… AT 1045 AM…A BAND OF THUNDERSTORMS STRETCHED ACROSS THE SEATTLE METRO AREA FROM NEAR NEWCASTLE…THROUGH SEATTLE TO POULSBO AND ON TO QUILCENE. THE BAND OF STORMS IS SLOWLY SPREADING SOUTHWEST NEAR 5 MPH. THROUGH 1 PM…THE MOST CONCENTRATED AREA OF THUNDERSTORMS WILL SPREAD SOUTHWEST TOWARD BLACK DIAMOND…DES MOINES… BREMERTON AND SEABECK. THUNDERSTORMS WILL BE CAPABLE OF PRODUCING SMALL HAIL…INTENSE RAINFALL AND DANGEROUS CLOUD-TO-GROUND LIGHTNING. IF YOU HEAR THUNDER…GO INDOORS.

Well, hello Friday the 13th! How appropriate that we’d be talking about thunderstorms on a day like this Did you notice it feels a little more humid this morning than usual? The weather lately has been more reminiscent of Kansas City, Missouri than Seattle, Washington, especially when seeing the humidity at 85%!

Like many of you, I was up last night tracking the brief hail/rain shower than moved through the central Kitsap area which also included thunder and lightning at times. Now it appears we could be under the threat for more of these storms over the next couple days as the atmosphere remains rather unstable and easterly flow pushes a lot of these storms from the mountains into the lowlands.

Currently we are under cloudy skies as a result of the marine layer that moved in overnight, but the issue here is what’s ABOVE the marine layer. The unstable airmass aloft combined with persistent easterly flow will keep the threat for thundershowers, hail and periods of lightning in the forecast through Sunday night.

Feel free to help in tracking the storm by using the comment section below to describe what’s happening in your area! More updates this afternoon…

~Matt