5/14 - 12:30am CDT - Great Lightning Tonight in West Texas!

We were treated to a great lightning show just north of Pecos, Texas earlier this evening as a few isolated storms merged together to create a fast-moving line of storms (MCS) that quickly caught up with us. These storms packed some very large hail and high winds at their peak, but luckily we were able to stay ahead of them during that time. The storm kicked up quite a bit of dust in the gust front, so it created low visibilities and an eerie scene in Pecos as it moved through. This comes after a day of fruitless chasing because storms that were expected to form near the Midland, Texas area did not due to a lack of required surface heating. More photos of this storm are available on my Flickr and Facebook albums.

Tomorrow we'll likely be chasing in West Texas again, but this time it may be closer to the Mexican border. Fast winds aloft, moisture at the surface, and winds blowing up the mountains in Mexico from the east should trigger some storms tomorrow afternoon after the ones tonight move through. The setup will be relatively similar to today, but hopefully we're able to get some more stronger isolated storms out of this. Here's some of the high points from the Storm Prediction Center's discussion on tomorrow with their Slight Risk area:

IN THESE AREAS...STEEP LAPSE RATES/MODERATE DESTABILIZATION ANDVEERING WIND PROFILES WILL BE SUPPORTIVE OF SUPERCELLS WITH LARGE HAIL AS THE PRIMARY HAZARD...ESPECIALLY MONDAY AFTERNOON/EARLY EVENING. STORMS MAY AGAIN CONGEAL/ORGANIZE INTO ONE OR MORE SOUTHEASTWARD-MOVING LINEAR CLUSTERS WITH A DAMAGING WIND/HAIL THREAT CONTINUING MONDAY EVENING/NIGHT ACROSS THE RIO GRANDE RIVER VICINITY.

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7/1 - 5pm - Hurricane Alex Landfall / Where's the Humidity?

Hurricane Alex made landfall in Mexico last night as a category 2 storm, which was the strongest June hurricane since 1966. causing widespread damage and flooding in areas around Monterrey. Rivers that had dried up in the area became active yesterday, sweeping away cars and unfortunately people. Two have died in that area after 16 inches of rain fell from the storm, which is now a weakening tropical storm. On the US side of the border, Alex caused mainly flooding issues for areas in Texas near Brownsville. A tornado watch is in effect for South Texas until 8pm CDT as the storm weakens and moves west. Hit the links below to read more about Alex's impact on Mexico and Texas.
[Yahoo! News / KRGV-TV]

Aside from a hurricane, the other weather story of note is the lack of humidity around the Ohio Valley. In Louisville right now, the dew point is a very comfortable 49 degrees with a temperature at 82. Remember that we had dew points in the upper 60's and 70's last week, which is oppressively humid. When will the typical July heat and humidity return? It looks like July 4th is when we'll see temperatures in the 90's again with rising dew points as an area of high pressure moves to the east of us (see image on right), which will allow humid air from areas near the Gulf of Mexico to surge northward. We won't see any rain here this week as high pressure remains the dominant factor in our weather. It's pretty dry around here, so we definitely need a good soaking. A cold front will attempt to make its way through the area this time next week, so I'd say that would be our next chance of rain in Louisville.