7/31 - 6pm - Wills' Send Off, Memphis Severe Weather

Tom Wills' retirement after 40 years was well celebrated on WAVE 3 Sunrise and WAVE 3 Listens this morning. Well wishes from both current and past WAVE staff ranged from sincere to downright hilarious, but all were in good taste. Tom judged my seventh grade science fair project at the Louisville Regional Science Fair in 2004, and I must say that he was very kind to all of the participants. (For those wondering, my project on the Doppler effect didn't win that year. Next year's project on floppy disk data loss due to electromagnetism did win 3rd place though.)

WAVE introduced Tom's replacement this morning, Christie Dutton from Lexington, Kentucky. She's worked in Hopkinsville, Lexington, and Cincinnati, so she's no stranger to the region. Her last meteorology position was with WXIX Fox 19 in Cincinnati, and you can read her bio here. She starts broadcasting next week after some training. The thing that intrigues me most is where her broadcast meteorology certificate came from: Mississippi State University! I certainly wish her well and hope we continue getting more MSU meteorologists in Louisville in the future!

Memphis had quite a few problems with severe weather yesterday, including an EF1 tornado that damaged numerous homes and businesses just east of town. 12,000 MLGW customers lost power just after the storm as well.
[WMC 5 Memphis]

7/30 - 4pm - Heat Easing in the Northwest

The Northwest has been hammered by extreme heat over the past week or so. The Portland and Seattle areas have seen all-time record high temperatures in the 100's this week. The National Weather Service offices in those areas have certainly had their hands full trying to keep up with all the records broken, along with issuing Excessive Heat Warnings. Luckily, the forecasts for both Seattle and Portland seem to have temperatures easing into the 90's today and 80's tomorrow. Click here to see a record temperature report from the Portland National Weather Service office.

Take a look at yesterday's storm reports from the SPC:


Notice all the tornado reports in Eastern Colorado, an area that was hit pretty hard earlier this season. Seven confirmed tornadoes touched down in this area yesterday, causing minor damage. [NWS, CBS4 Denver]

Tornadoes in New Jersey and Pennsylvania caused quite a bit of damage yesterday. The confirmed EF2 tornado in Sussex County, New Jersey damaged farm buildings, but luckily caused no injuries. The tornado in Stroudsburg, PA was also an EF2, but caused two injuries and damaged homes along with farm buildings.
[NWS, SPC]

Looks like it could be a bit wet for retiring WAVE TV meteorologist Tom Wills' Louisville Bats baseball game this evening. Scattered storms are forming along the Ohio River now and more rain is coming up from the south. Looks like the game may start out dry, but rain could set in later in the evening.

7/29 - 7pm - Comings and Goings

There are only 9 days left until I go down to Mississippi State University. It's extremely exciting, but at the same time I'll miss being in Louisville. In any case, I'm happy to be at one of the best places in the nation for meteorology!

Meteorologist Tom Wills officially retires from WAVE TV on Friday after 40 years of service. In honor of his career, the Louisville Bats will be hosting a "Tom Wills Night" during their game against the Toledo Mud Hens starting at 7:05pm tomorrow. It looks like there may be some storms in the area during the game tomorrow, but it should be a great time either way! Tom Wills' replacement will be announced on Friday morning during WAVE 3 Sunrise.

Kentucky's new Mesonet system (a network of automated weather reporting stations) is slowly coming online. This is great for Kentucky because it will allow for greater monitoring of micro-scale weather phenomena and should give residents in rural areas better access to current conditions in the region. Click here to go to the Kentucky Mesonet's website.

7/27 - 9am - It's Hot, But Not Here!

Phoenix, Arizona is under an Excessive Heat Warning today, with an expected high of 113 degrees. Tonight's low will be 89 degrees and the forecast for tomorrow calls for a high of around 114 degrees. Here's what the Phoenix National Weather Service office has to say:

TEMPERATURES RANGING 5 TO 8 DEGREES ABOVE NORMAL ARE EXPECTED DURING THIS PERIOD. DAYTIME HIGHS OVER THE LOWER DESERTS WILL RANGE FROM 110 TO 117 DEGREES TODAY AND TUESDAY. ADDITIONALLY...TEMPERATURES ARE NOT EXPECTED TO COOL OFF OVERNIGHT...

That's hot weather no matter where you're from!

The jet stream may be putting Phoenix under a nice warm ridge right now, but it continues to put Louisville inside a trough with much cooler weather. We may reach 90 tomorrow for the first time this month tomorrow, but if we don't then we will continue the record-breaking cool weather around here. Here's a great link that the NWS in Louisville posted about our cool weather... click here.

Cooler weather continues in Louisville after Tuesday, with a daily storm chance for the rest of the week.

7/26 - 1pm - Back From Alaska!

After two weeks of traveling through the Alaskan frontier, I'm back home recovering from such a great trip. I couldn't post on here yesterday because I was so tired from the overnight flight and I'm still trying to overcome the jet lag.

While I was gone, it was pretty cool in the Louisville area. The highest temperature we've had this July was 89 degrees. Not having any 90's in July is very rare and we may even break a record with that if things stay cool through the end of the month.

Looks like the rest of this month will remain below normal according to the Climate Prediction Center's latest forecast:


On to other news... Tom Wills retirement at WAVE TV is coming at the end of July. He will be greatly missed in the Louisville community and I'm sure it will be nice for him to retire after so many years at WAVE. The search for a replacement meteorologist is on at WAVE, especially after posting the position as being available on Raycom's (parent company of WAVE) website:

WAVE 3-TV, the NBC in Louisville Kentucky (DMA 50) is looking for an experienced meteorologist to join our award-winning weather team. We take pride in being the market leader for severe weather coverage with an aggressive team of veterans who know how to showcase technology, own breaking weather coverage, and execute brand in their presentation. Primary shift is for the weekday 2-hour morning and 1-hour Noon newscasts, while also servicing our radio partnerships with live and taped weather updates, and recording weather segments for our digital channels during the scheduled shifts.

It'll be interesting to see who they pick. Broadcast meteorology job openings in Louisville are few and far between, so this is certainly a big opportunity for someone out there!

7/10 - 3pm - New Website, Traveling

I just launched my new website at http://ryanhoke.com and http://ryanweather.org. This new site will not feature weather forecasts for Louisville like Ryan Weather did, but you can still find all the archived forecast videos on there. My blog has also switched over from Ryan Weather as well, so I'll be blogging about weather news, college, and meteorology.

I'm going on vacation starting tomorrow and I won't be back for two weeks. I'll be sure to post when I come back, which will be only a couple weeks before I go down to Mississippi State. Busy month coming up!

7/9 - 7:45pm - Dry For Now, Rain Coming This Weekend

It's been nice and dry around here today, and it looks like we'll continue that trend with warmer temperatures tomorrow. Temperatures should hold steady in the upper 80's and lower 90's as we continue through the weekend, but rain chances will become an issue starting on Saturday. We'll see a daily chance for rain until Wednesday of next week, but I don't think we'll see rain on each one of those days.

The new replacement website for Ryan Weather is almost done and should be up and running tomorrow. Tomorrow will be my last Louisville weather blog post as well. I'll be on vacation for the next two weeks, and then I'll begin posting every few days about general weather topics and college.

7/8 - 11pm - Cranking Up the Heat

Sorry about the late post... today was our family's annual trip to King's Island in Ohio.

After a high of 86 today, we'll be seeing increasing temperatures as we approach the weekend. A disturbance passing through today actually did produce rain, and there are some heavier pockets of rain to our south right now. This should all clear out overnight and leave us with sunny skies until Saturday. Friday will be the hottest day this week, with highs reaching into the mid 90's.

Monday night was an excellent time to view the International Space Station as it passed over Louisville at around 10:41pm. Tonight was another viewing opportunity, but clouds prevented anyone from actually seeing the flyover. Take a look at the short video I made of the station flyover and the full moon from Monday night:



NOTE: If your computer is having trouble playing back this video smoothly, click the HD button on the video player to switch to a standard definition view.

7/7 - 1pm - Warm, Humid July Pattern Sets In

If you're a fan of the hot, humid, and sticky weather we experience every summer here in Kentuckiana, you're in luck. Temperatures rising into the mid 90's by late week will make things downright hot around here, but rain should put a damper on that for the weekend. A small disturbance will shoot through here on Wednesday as we warm up, but I don't expect any rain from it at this time. Next week still looks wet compared to this week.

Mississippi State University posted a nice press release yesterday about a scholarship I and five other incoming freshman received, click here.

7/6 - 3:45pm - Here Comes Some Hot Weather!

Looks like we're finally done with the rain for a little while here. High pressure forming off to our west will drive precipitation northward, which also means temperatures will be on the increase. Expect highs near 90 around the area tomorrow, with mid 90's entering the picture by the weekend. Our next rain chance will happen on Saturday as this pattern falls apart a bit, but it doesn't look like rain totals will be very high at this point.

More rain is possible next week, but temperatures shouldn't buckle like they did with last week's rain.

With only a few days left of operation, here are some interesting numbers about Ryan Weather:

2 live TV appearances
2 weather video awards
4 tornadoes witnessed with Storm Chasing Adventure Tours
30 months of website operations
106 video forecasts
265 minutes (estimated) of video forecasts
818 blog posts
1,000 blog visits during Hurricane Ike Wind Storm 2008
3,500 blog visits during Ice Storm 2009
14,337 website visits since May 2007
21,884 blog visits since November 2007

7/4 - 5pm - The Final Video Forecast

Rain is falling and will really affect any Independence Day plans you may have. Fireworks will be a wet ordeal and nature may provide some of its own with thunder and lightning. Looks pretty dry after today!



This video was made in high definition thanks to a new camera I just received. If your computer is having trouble playing this video back smoothly, click the HD button on the video player to turn off high definition and revert to a standard definition version. You can also view this video in its highest resolution by clicking the full screen button on the video player.

This is my last video forecast with Ryan Weather. It's time to transition the website to an online resume and archive so I can start getting serious about my meteorology career in college. It's been great fun learning more about weather and broadcasting over the past two and a half years, and I thank everyone for tuning in and looking at my website!

7/3 - 9:15am - Storm Chasing Documentary, July 4th Forecast

I've been hard at work going through and editing more than two hours of video I shot during my storm chasing trip. Here's my final product, a much leaner 22 minutes and 30 seconds:



On to the July 4th forecast.... It looks like we may make out okay for any afternoon and early evening festivities during Independence Day. There may be a few scattered thunderstorms ahead of this front, but they should only temporarily halt any outdoor plans before they move off. Highs around the area should hover around 80, which could make this the most comfortable July 4th in Louisville in many years. The main rain comes after midnight on Saturday, with rainfall totals over one inch according to the HPC. There's still a little bit of wiggle room between the models on when exactly this rain will start, but the general conclusion is that it will happen after midnight. So as long as you get those fireworks shows in before late evening, things should stay dry.

We'll see a small chance for rain on Sunday with the exit of this system, but the rest of next week will be dry with highs in the 80's!

7/2 - 12:30pm - Cloudy and Cool in July, Ryan Weather Transition

It's July 2nd, but you'd never know it by taking a walk outside. We're at 68 degrees right now and I don't think we'll get much above 70 because of the cloud cover across the region this afternoon. Clouds should finally move away tomorrow and temperatures should return to seasonable levels, which means the mid 80's.

Rain for Saturday is still in question at this point. The latest NAM run shoves the rain south of here and keeps us dry for the most part, but the GFS is still insistent on giving us a moderate rain on Saturday afternoon and maybe into the evening. The GFS also gives us a pretty good shot of rain on Sunday too. I'm still not convinced that we'll see as much rain as the GFS is giving us, so we'll give it another day before a July 4th forecast is firmed up.

This Saturday's video forecast will be the very last one that I'll do for Ryan Weather. With a two-week vacation coming up and college starting next month, I can't continue to do Louisville weather anymore. Here's how this transition is going to work:

• Ryanweather.org will turn into a online résumé for my upcoming career, also available at http://ryanhoke.com. Storm chasing photos, archived Ryan Weather forecast videos, and any news that comes up will be posted there as well.
• This blog will continue on, but posts will not be centered around Louisville weather as they have been. Expect posts about what I'm learning about in my upcoming meteorology classes, college life at Mississippi State, weather news, and anything else that's going on. Posts will likely not be as frequent as they have been, maybe a post every few days at worst. Regular Louisville weather postings will cease on July 10th.
  
• The storm chasing blog will still be up and running as usual when I'm in Tornado Alley next spring.

I'm still in the process of designing and coding my new website, so it may take a few weeks to get everything switched over and running. I really wish I could continue forecasting for the Louisville area, but it wouldn't be practical to do it from Starkville, MS, especially if my college life gets really busy. I'll still be around on Facebook, Twitter, and my blog. It's been a pleasure to run my website and blog over the past two and a half years, and I'd like to thank everyone who's been checking them out.

I'll likely be back doing forecast videos again in a couple years at Mississippi State, but the big leagues are not far away either. I started this website in 2007 to help me get accustomed to working on-air and delivering weather information to viewers, with the hope that I could get ahead in a field where competition is fierce. Needless to say, the site went far beyond its original intentions.

It will be bittersweet to complete my final video this Saturday, but I'm extremely excited to be moving on to getting my meteorology degree and starting my broadcast career immediately after. Broadcast meteorology requires moving around the country quite a bit for at least the first few years, but I'd like to come back to Louisville at some point. Who knows, maybe the right job opening will come up here in town and it'll be like old times again!

7/1 - 3pm - Spotty Showers and Storms Popping Up

I just peeked outside and saw some foreboding dark clouds to the north. The KLVX radar shows a shower beginning to form in Oldham County, and that may turn into a thunderstorm with the influence of a shortwave coming through the area. Cold temperatures aloft due to our northwest flow may help produce hail with any storm that forms this afternoon.

Storms should be out of the area by this evening and we'll keep it dry until July 4th. Temperatures will be the same tomorrow as today, with an increase into the 80's by Friday. Thunderstorms during the afternoon and evening of July 4th look imminent by looking at the GFS and its placement of a warm front coming through the region. There's still some inconsistencies among the other models at this time, so we'll keep an eye on it. You may want to have some indoor alternate plans handy if you're going to have an outdoor Independence Day celebration. I'll update you with the latest on this situation tomorrow.