Why So Windy? Lots Of Rain Ahead?

If you were out and about today, you probably noticed the winds being quite strong. Well, you weren't imagining anything because they were blowing out of the south today between 10 and 25 mph with gusts even higher than that!

It will continue to be windy this week until our next storm system moves in late Thursday night and into Friday. The reasoning behind the blustery conditions is because we have a strong area of high pressure off to the east of the Stateline in Ohio/West Virginia. We also have a low pressure system developing to our north and west in the Dakotas. What this does is it creates an area between the two systems that we as meteorologists call a gradient zone. Essentially, this is where a large difference in pressure exists (the stronger the low and the stronger the high, the bigger the pressure difference, thus the faster wind speeds). So that is why we are seeing blustery conditions all week...a low pressure and a high pressure are basically entrenching us between them, causing winds to get stronger.

At the end of the week, a strong storm system will move in and give us rain Thursday night and Friday. Then, the cold front will essentially stall out near the Stateline, and that will allow a secondary, even stronger (also known as deeper) area of low pressure to develop near the Iowa-Missouri border Friday afternoon.

That low will trek eastward towards the region Friday evening, and since it will strong, it will have an abundance of moisture to work with. Therefore, forecast models are suggesting plenty of rainfall with this system, especially from Friday late afternoon into early Saturday morning. Some of the forecast models are thinking we could see anywhere from 2-3" of rain. I think we see somewhere between 1.5-2.5" of rain from this system when all is said and done. And go figure it is going to fall on Football Friday. It seems as though Fridays have a rain bulls-eye on them, doesn't it?

The rain will come to an end early on Saturday morning, and allow for another fall-like weekend for the Stateline.