TONIGHT FOX 4 WILL BE ANNOUNCING A SPECIAL WEATHERING THE STORM SEMINAR THAT WILL TAKE PLACE @ UNION STATION. THIS SEMINAR WILL FEATURE SPEAKERS FROM AROUND THE COUNTRY TALKING ABOUT THE TORNADO SEASON OF 2011. THERE WILL ALSO BE A CLASS TEACHING OUR VIEWERS HOW TO SPOT AND REPORT SEVERE WEATHER. WE ALSO ARE HOPING THAT REED TIMMER FROM THE DISCOVERY SHOW STORMCHASERS WILL BE THERE SHOWING HIS WORK SO FAR THIS SEASON INCLUDING THE HISTORIC SOUTHEAST TORNADO OUTBREAK. SPEAKERS MAY ALSO INCLUDE AN INSURANCE ADVISER AND A CHILD PSYCHOLOGIST TO ASSIST FAMILIES THAT HAVE CONCERNS ABOUT STORM RELATED ISSUES. DETAILS WILL BE ANNOUNCED ON THE NEWS STARTING TONIGHT AND FOR THE NEXT 2 WEEKS.

THIS SEMINAR WILL BE HELD ON SATURDAY JUNE 18TH @ 9AM AND LAST TILL ABOUT NOON. IT WILL BE HELD @ THE UNION STATION IMAX THEATER. THE SEMINAR IS FREE FOR OUR VIEWERS AND WE'RE ASKING FOR A $5 DONATION THAT WILL GO TO STORM AID, WHICH IS OUR CONDUIT TO THE RED CROSS AND ASSISTING THE FOLKS IN JOPLIN/READING RECOVER FROM THE STORMS.

AGAIN ADDITIONAL DETAILS WILL BE FORTHCOMING...BUT PUT IT ON YOUR CALENDAR.

Now on to the sensible weather...did you know that through yesterday there have been over 250 record highs in the USA...mostly across the SE and Eastern part of the country...pretty impressive.

All those dots represent record highs per NOAA. Many of those records pertain to COOP stations so the years of record keeping may not be overly high...but still interesting none the less.
 
Another tidbit...information coming in from the NWS in Boston indicates that the tornado that struck the Springfield, MA area was rated "at least" an EF3 with winds  at least 136 MPH...typically when they use wording such as "at least" they then bring in some other experts or look even closer to evaluate whether or not in jumped categories into EF4 status. There is some pretty impressive video running around of that tornado. Take a look here. You can really see the wind stream effects with the tornado moving across the Connecticut River...very interesting to watch. Here is another one to look at.

Weather wise around here there is not a lot to talk about. We've hit at least 90 and may tack on another couple before the afternoon is done. as mentioned yesterday we should be around 90, give or take a few degrees, for the foreseeable future. We're crazy capped today with the morning sounding indicating that the mid level temperatures are close to 60 degrees. They may come down a few degrees over the weekend while a weak boundary oozes into the MO/IA border area. These boundaries are always concerning with 90+ heat and while the dewpoints may not be crazy high, there will be a lot of instability out there. The winds will be dropping off over the weekend as well...so the air won't be as "mixed up" as today. That could cause a minor increase in the dewpoints making things feel a bit more uncomfortable. The NAM model actually is breaking out precip along and north of the 36 highway corridor in N MO...those scenarios have to be watched because depending on the amount/coverage and intensity of the storms there is the potential for some sort of rain cooled airmass to sag southwards or southeastwards and trigger additional storm development. The storms would be heavy rain producers with the potential of some hail as well should things get fired up over the weekend. Just keep this in the back of your mind for the next couple of days. We also should see additional sunshine for the early part of next week without dealing with convective debris cloud cover.

That's about all for today. Over the weekend I'll talk a bit about the new Hurricane Season that started a couple of days ago.

Joe