Hot, humid weather with only isolated & small afternoon inland thunderstorms will continue through the weekend.
As quiet as our weather is....it's quite the opposite for more northern latitudes. An unseasonably strong low pressure system in the Plains is producing an intense & widespread severe storm outbreak from Oklahoma to Michigan & just about everywhere inbetween. Multiple lines of intense wind-damaging thunderstorms will move across this part of the country with a few tornadoes (shear is so strong & upper level dynamics are so powerful that storms will have a tendency to quickly become linear possibly limiting the tornado potential some...however, the southern end of any line or a small-scale circulation within any of the lines will have tornado potential as well as any isolated cells out ahead of -- or inbetween -- the lines). The strength of this storm system is something that's more common in early spring -- March or April....BUT with the strong heating (instability) of early summer. Heavy high elevation snow is falling in parts of Colorado & Wyoming. This system will lift out into Canada Fri. with the trailing front making it nowhere close to the Southeast U.S. (see upper level ridge firmly in place as discussed Wed.).
Speaking of the midwest....Jaguar's center, Brad Meester, grew up in Parkersburg, Ia. -- the community hammered by an EF-5 tornado the day before Memorial Day (see photos of the home of Brad's wife here). The Jags are selling hats for this weekend's minicamp with 100% of the proceeds going to the Parkersburg Relief Fund. Get more info. & donate by clicking here -- the official Jags web site.
Quite a bit of recent talk about a national catastrophe insurance plan which is currently stuck in Congress. Our two presidential candidates have taken a stand &
there's definitely a division: McCain is against, Obama is for it. This creates an interesting division between buddies Fl. governor Crist & John McCain. It would certainly be in Crist's
best interest if a national cat. fund was established. His rear end is flapping in the wind since Crist decided to make it next to impossible for insurance companies to operate in Florida...& those companies that are operating, are going to have a very difficult time meeting the financial demands of a true "big hit". But the real gamble is the state's cat. fund which is nowhere close to solvent. Crist has rolled the dice & a major hurricane hit in a populated part of Florida will be difficult to recover from potentially sending the state into a true financial & insurance debacle. One does have to ask why should someone in, say, Goodland, Kansas help pay for someone that's irresponsibly built in harm's way right on the ocean? "Saving for a rainy day" is always a good idea but a national tax, of sorts, opens all sorts of possible pitfalls.
From the Farmer's Almanac:
June Weather Lore
When pigs carry sticks, the clouds will play tricks.
If the birds be silent, expect thunder.
When spiders’ webs in air do fly, The spell will soon be very dry.
When sheep collect and huddle, tomorrow will become a puddle.
When the glowworm lights her lamp, the air is always very damp.
Bats flying late in the evening indicate fair weather.
