Sunshine returns to the Finger Lakes

Not Completely Dry, Though

Much of Thursday will turn out sunny after the morning fog burns off. Not all areas will remain completely dry, though.

The storm system that dumped rain on the Finger Lakes all week has finally started to lift out and is no longer a concern for our weather.

Before that, though, a nice day will unfold. Fog is widespread this morning but will burn off over the next couple hours. Allow yourself some extra time if traveling this morning and slow down.

Skies will then turn sunny with some fair weather clouds developing this afternoon. Temperatures will rise into the low 80s for most areas.

After about 4 pm, a couple of small, isolated showers or thunderstorms may pop up in the afternoon heating. The majority of the region will stay dry this afternoon though.

Then, this evening, a line of showers and thunderstorms will move in from the west. This rain should make its way east across the region overnight. Severe weather and flooding are not expected.

More Scattered Showers, Storms

Scattered showers and a few thunderstorms will remain possible on Friday as well. After some initial morning showers, there should be a break in any rain during the mid and late morning hours. By midday, a few more scattered showers and storms will start to pop up.

These storms are not expected to be overly widespread. However, a brief gusty wind or some small hail cannot be totally ruled out. Flooding should not be a major concern, as the storms will be small and quick moving.

The chance for showers will continue into Saturday as yet another system moves in. Like Friday, showers will be scattered and light. A few areas may even escape the rain all together both Friday and Saturday.

One or two showers may linger into Sunday and Monday, but these days should be more dry than not. Rain chances will increase again towards the middle of next week as another large system targets the region.

Temperatures over the next few days and into the weekend will be close to or just below normal. Looks for highs around 80 degrees on Friday, with mid and upper 70s Saturday, Sunday, and Monday.

Drought Report, Radar Notes

In the wake of all of the rain this week, I have decided to forgo the drought report for this week.

The drought classifications are jointly produced by the National Drought Mitigation Center at the University of Nebraska-Lincoln, the United States Department of Agriculture, and the National Oceanic and Atmospheric Administration. Each week, they publish their update on Thursday morning. The report only contains data through 8am Tuesday of the same week, however.

Given the amount of rain that fell Tuesday and Wednesday, whatever map they publish today is likely to already be significantly out of date. It would be more accurate to address next week’s drought report map, which should show a very significant reduction in drought concern for our area.

On another note, I am pleased to announce that at least some of the recent changes made to the FLX Weather Radar have been rolled back.

The changes were prompted by a change in Google’s policy for using Google Maps. Google recently switched from a free model to a pay-to-play model. Luckily, the first 28,000 views in a given month are free. The supplier of the radar widget I use had me apply for my own Google Maps account and was then able to roll our radar widget back to how it was.

Of course, as Finger Lakes Weather continues to grow, we may start hitting that 28,000 views threshold, but the costs for doing so should not be too high to raise concern.

Please let me know what you think of the radar now that I’ve been able to make some changes back to the way it used to be.

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