Lawrenceville Weather has moved into the social media world. While it’s possible there may be some additional blog posts, comments on the weather will now be made through our Facebook page. Become a fan today!

I’ve added a stripped down version of the LawrencevilleWeather.com home page and forecasts that you can easily access from your mobile phone when you’re on the go and want to know what’s happening with the weather.

The graphics light version should appear automatically if you’re using an IPhone, Ipod, TMobile G-1 (Android) and some others. You can go to lawrencevilleweather.com or, if you hate typing, you can go to lzuwx.com and get to the same place.

You’re not going to get all the big graphics that are available on the regular site, since they don’t size well to the smaller screen you have on your phone. But, you will get the forecast and warning information, and I’ll probably add some other pages that can be made phone-friendly.

If you see the regular site with the graphics and all on your mobile, let me know via a comment here, and I’ll see what I can do to get your phone supported.

Oh, and why lzuwx.com, besides the fact that it’s short? LZU is the abbreviation that airplane pilots and the FAA use for Lawrencevillle’s Briscoe Field, and WX is a common abbreviation for weather.

This is going to be one of those grab-bag posts. Sometimes I see things in the news that are weather related, but don’t post immediately about them.There have been a few things like that recently, so here goes.

We’ll start with the drought, and more specifically, the effects on the Atlanta water supply. As Lake Lanier remains at near record low levels, Georgia EPD Director Carol Couch has asked the Army Corps of Engineers to reduce discharges from the lake to create a flow of 650 CFS at Peachtree Creek on the Chattahoochee River. This is similar to a reduction made last spring which, Couch argues, didn’t cause any environmental damage, and would save some 11.7 billion gallons of water.

Meanwhile, Senator Obama has apparently decided that Florida is more important than Georgia, telling potential Sunshine State voters he would side with them when it comes to deciding who gets water from the Apalachicola Chattahoochee Flint river basin. This prompted a quick response from Senators Isakson and Chambliss expressing their disappointment with his comments. It’s another reason to think carefully before you decide to vote for the Chosen One.

The recent cold snap tells us that Autumn is truly here. While it seemed colder than normal, Atlanta is actually registering 2.1 degrees above normal for the month through yesterday, with a mean temperature of 66.6 degrees. Here in Lawrenceville, it’s been a bit cooler than that, and I’ve noticed that early morning temperatures in other metro Atlanta locations consistently register lower than what’s recorded at the airport. (The home page and forecast pages now show current conditions for several cities in the area.) The outlook for the last week of October and the first week of November points to colder than normal temperatures (and lower than normal rainfall) for much of Georgia. We should, however, get some rain this weekend—Accuweather says to expect just less than an inch—which would give us above normal rainfall for October.

While Georgia worries about temperatures in the low 40s, other parts of the country are already getting snow. In addition to snow in the upper elevations of the Rocky Mountains (which can be expected almost any time of year), parts of New England are expecting a few inches in the next day or so. The growing season has ended for much of the northwestern US, and in the east, for parts of West Virginia, Pennsylvania and Ohio, with temperatures dropping below freezing. On average, North Georgia doesn’t drop below freezing until the second week of November. I’m still waiting for ‘official’ winter weather forecasts; they seem awfully late this year.

Finally, I’ve added (at least temporarily) more detailed forecast information at the three or six hour level to every forecast, and provided improved accuracy for the graphical 3 day and 7 day forecasts, as you can see here. There is also an hourly forecast added for every location, for example, Atlanta, which includes things like rain amounts and probability of precipitation for each period. The information tends to be more accurate than what you get in the zone forecast, which covers a fairly wide area.

I have been providing an hourly forecast for Lawrenceville all along using a Rube Goldberg type system of producing the forecast on a computer here at home and transferring it to the website. Unfortunately that method won’t scale to other locations in the way my new data source does. So, the question is, how useful are the hourly forecasts, and should I keep them? Check your city using the Get Forecast menu item above, and let me know.

And, by the way, have you noticed how Global Warming has kind of dropped out of the news lately?

I’ve spent a busy weekend working on the site, and have made several improvements. The first is a change in the way that I get current conditions, which is now much faster than it was previously. As a result, the state conditions page (see here for Georgia) now comes up much faster. I’ve also added area conditions to the home page, and expect to add area conditions to other locations as time allows.

For Atlanta area residents, this won’t be a big deal, but I have now added high and low tide information for forecasts along the coast, such as Savannah. You can also start at the tides center, and drill down to see high and low tide charts for most US coastal areas.

The other new feature displays river flows and heights for many rivers and lakes across the country. Many people are interested in the water level at Lake Lanier. Of course, there a gabillion river gauges, so you can start here to see where flooding might be occurring or to drill down to gauges in your area.

I’m going to be working on providing both short term (3-6 hour) and long term (8-15 day) forecasts in the near future, so you might see some changes to the way the forecasts look as I experiment with them.

A while ago, I mentioned that I would be improving the capabilities of the Tropics section of the website. This has been continuing over the past few weeks, and as of this evening, I’ve added support for the display of Tropical Invests. As it so happens, there are a number of active invests right now, which you can see in this map of the Atlantic Tropical Basin, or in the map below, which isn’t live:

An invest is a low pressure system that hasn’t yet developed into a tropical depression, but is of interest, because it could. Think of it as a ‘storm of interest’ that the Hurricane Center is paying attention to to see if it will develop into anything. For example, Invest 90L is the system that’s brought the rain this week to North Georgia, but is unlikely to develop into a storm. However Invest 92L could well develop into a tropical storm or worse, depending on exactly where it goes.

You can view a map of an invest’s path, and you can also view what forecast models predict the storm’s path will be.

It’s been almost two weeks since I’ve had a chance to post some weather news. This time of year is pretty slow as far as weather goes … it’s a little too early for any real tropical weather activity, and except for the occasional thunderstorm, the forecast is typically hot and humid.

But, the weather does move in patterns, and now it looks like we’re back into the same type of weather we saw in late May, which you may remember was highlighted by a lack of rainfall, with high pressure off the Atlantic keeping any moisture well to our west.

We got somewhat of a break from the dry pattern as the first half of the month ended, although it took an unusual storm from the northeast to do it. And, even then, rainfall was spotty, depending on whether a thunderstorm passed through your neighborhood. Since the first of the week, we’ve seen temperatures in the 90s and low dewpoints, which makes outdoor activity bearable, but keeps the raindrops away.

The Weather Service issued its forecast for July, and the three month outlook for July through September last week, and as indicated by the title of this post, for the Southeast, it’s likely to be hot and dry. July’s outlook proffers warmer than normal temperatures for the east and west coasts, and cooler than normal weather for the nation’s midsection. The Plains states are likely to be the only place in the country with more than average rainfall, although there’s an equal chance of above or below normal precipitation everywhere else except for the mountain west.

The three month outlook amplifies the heat, especially in the southwest. Most of the eastern part of the country has a 40% likelihood of warmer than normal temperatures. Expected tropical weather brings a better chance of rain form much of the east coast during the latter half of the summer.

Tropical storm Barry, along with the recent rains further north have provided some drought relief, particularly for south Georgia and Florida. At right is the drought outlook from mid-May, and the latest outlook, issued last Thursday.

While the portion of the map showing a chances of improvement keeps moving north and west, the drought is spreading north as well, with much of Ohio and Indiana moving into a persistent drought. While I wish no ill will towards our friends in the rust belt, perhaps this movement of the center of the drought northward might mean some relief for the southeast.

Maps Update

You might have noticed the new 12 hour regional forecast on the home page, as well as in the map section of the site. I’ve added the ability to click on the map to view a seven day forecast for the location clicked on, much the same way as clicking on a weather warning map displays active warnings for that location. The forecast map, along with many others, can now be animated, showing the changes in the weather over a several day period.

I spent a busy weekend by the computer, making some updates to the site. You’ll notice a few changes to the menus that make it easier to get forecasts for different locations, and get at the information you want.

The big change, however, is the addition of high-quality satellite images to the site:

In addition to the enhanced infrared United States satellite image shown above, images are available for nine regions, and every state. You’ll see the Georgia satellite on the home page, for example (assuming that there are no warnings, and it’s not raining). You can also access all the images here.

There are still a few things to add, including the 5 hour and 12 hour animations of the satellite images. I hope to get them in over the next week or so.

This morning’s low of 30 degrees was the coldest so far in March. It comes nowhere near the record for March 18th of 20 degrees, set back in 1902. This morning was the worst of the cold, and temperatures should be moderating back to normal early this week, with highs in the low 70s and lows in the upper 40s by Tuesday.

However, the cold weather may return just in time for what would have been the AT&T Classic, had it been running on the old schedule of the week before the Masters. For the period from Wednesday the 28th through April Fool’s Day, we could be looking at highs around 60, and lows in the 30s, according to one forecast I’ve seen. The Climate Prediction Center is still calling for warmer than normal temperatures in Atlanta for that timeframe though, so we’ll have to wait and see what the weather actually becomes.

With a week to go before the Christmas holiday, many people are planning to pile into their cars and head home to family over the next week. Unfortunately, it looks like the great weather we’ve been enjoying for the past few days is going to turn into rain (and in some areas, snow) just in time for holiday travel.

The action got started today, as the threat of mountain snow caused by an upper level low pressure system in the Rockies is affecting the mountains of Arizona and New Mexico. The storm moves east tomorrow, and brings the chance of a winter storm to portions of Texas, Oklahoma, and Kansas, where it’s cold, and heavy rain and thunder to Louisiana, Arkansas, and Mississippi, where it’s not.

Here in Georgia, we’ll begin to feel the effects on Wednesday, with high temperatures 15 degrees below what we’ve been seeing. By Thursday, when the peak travel period begins, the precipitation arrives, and is likely to bring an inch of rain to a band stretching from Louisiana to Massachusetts, and over two inches to a narrow band between New Orleans and Chattanooga.

Meanwhile, except for poor Portland, Oregon, not much rain is expected for the rest of the country after Thursday. If you’re traveling south and want to avoid the rain, leave on Thursday before the storm moves in. If you’re going north, leave on Saturday as the storm moves out. Friday looks to be just wet, although there’s a chance of rain throughout Georgia through Christmas day.

On the site maintenance side, I’ve taken some time during the pre-Christmas slowdown to install new icons for the current conditions and weather forecasts. I’ve also created another feature I’ve wanted to offer for a long time: the ability to provide current conditions and weather forecasts on other people’s sites. If you’ve got a website, you can pick your location, a background color or image, and the type of forecast you would like, and the appropriate code will automatically be generated for you to put on your web page.

So if you’re currently using a weather sticker from someone else on your site, or want to personalize your blog with local information, support a community resource by adding local weather to your website.

Metro Atlanta is battening down the hatches this evening in preparation for the coldest weather yet this season. Radio stations have opened up their storm centers, even though except for the relatively high winds, there’s no storm in sight. Actually, I like Walter Reeves advice the best: turn off your automatic sprinkler systems so you don’t wake up to a sheet of ice for the next few mornings.

Cold weather in December isn’t all that unusual. In 2005, temperatures got down to 20 degrees just before Christmas, and in 2004, it was 17 degrees on December 20th. Those temperatures are comparable to what I expect we’ll see over the next few mornings.

If you’re not a fan of the colder weather, the good news is that once this spell is over, we’re likely to see a warmer period that could last almost through Christmas Day. By Monday, temperatures will moderate with highs in the upper 50s, and lows in the 30s. The following week, we could even see highs in the upper 60s, and lows in the 40s. The warmer weather is also likely to bring us some rain during the period as well.

I spent the day upgrading the website, adding some new maps, and hopefully making it easier to use. Now that winter is in full swing, I’ve added a new Winter Weather page which shows maps of snowfall levels and predicted snowfall for the next 24 hours. There’s also a discussion of major snow and ice storms expected over the next few days.

I’ve also modified the home page to add some additional forecast maps, and to make the maps easier to use. Now, you can click on a tab to see warnings and radar, temperature and precipitation forecasts, and current conditions. I’ve got a little more work to do to finish everything up, especially when trying to display a larger map of some of the forecasts, but it should be done by the end of the weekend.

I took the opportunity this weekend to make some significant changes to the way Lawrenceville Weather works. Over the almost four years I have run this site, I’ve added a lot of new features. The problem is that almost no one knew that they were there, since access to them was buried where it couldn’t be found. In addition, with the capability to display national forecasts, it didn’t make sense to have ‘Current Conditions’ always ending up with the forecast for Lawrenceville.

The solution was to make a new two-level menu system that lets you more easily find what you want. Here’s a quick rundown of what you’ll find on the top row of menus:

Lawrenceville Weather: This is essentially mirroring the structure of the old site, with the home page, forecast, and the historical data showing up on the second line of the menu. I’ve also added a new Watches and Warnings page — more on that later.

National Weather: The main page here is the old city forecasts page, but you can click on Forecast to bring up a forecast page for any location in the country. It defaults to Atlanta, but you can set your defaults for another city if you wish. Once you’ve decided on your forecast, the second-level menu lets you look at watches, warnings and special weather statements. Finally, I’ve added a new State menu that displays additional climate and weather information relevant to the entire state.

Maps: This area brings all the map related functionality in one place. You can access radar and satellite information, forecast maps, rainfall history, and more.

Tropical Center: This section of the website holds information on tropical storms and hurricanes. You can see storm tracks, outlooks, and storm histories.

Blog and About: Pretty much the same as before.

The two big additions that brought some of this change about are the watches and warnings additions, and the tropical center additions. I’ve added a new watches and warnings map to the map center that lets you drill down into warning areas until you’re looking at the warnings for a specific city. These maps also appear on the forecast pages (by default if there is a warning in the forecast area).

The second addition is the new tropical storm pages. These should provide a lot of detail about active storms, and reference information on previous storms going back to the ’80s.

Bugs: A big change like this is sure to bring problems with it — some things don’t work like they should, menus aren’t always appearing on every page properly, or images don’t display (like they aren’t now in the tropical center). I’ll be working on getting these fixed over the next few days, however if you see a problem, leave a comment to this post.

Right now, it’s a beautiful Sunday afternoon, and I’m going outside to enjoy it while it lasts. The cooler weather brought in by yesterday’s rains won’t last too long.