It is a warm, very dry, breezy day & absolutely beautiful!  Headed for lower 70s in the far east/northeast to upper 70s in the southwest, relative humidity levels will run 17-28% this afternoon.

The Northern Lights were seen deep into Asia on May 15-16 & as far south as central New York & Pennsylvania in the United States.

With the active sun & the likelihood of a solar maximum in 2013, the potential of seeing the Northern Lights at least once will be with us now-2013.  With the recent storm mainly hitting Asia with a pulse into Greenland, eastern Canada & New England, we missed out, but potential will be pretty high over the next several months.

HIGH PLAINS/STEPPES WEATHER……..

Today the weather in our viewing area was more like the High Plains & steppes of eastern Colorado & not Indiana.  Wind, sun, steppe to desert dryness & heat made it feel & look like a western region.  The nearly 40-degree jump in the temperature from the morning low was typical of western weather.

We hit 84.1 at WLFI, as did Fowler to Remington to Rensselear to Rochester to Kokomo, even Fort Wayne had 84.  Monticello hit 85.

With dew points in the 30s, relative humidity levels were as low as 14% today, greatly drying soils & evaporating much water from lakes, rivers & streams, especially with the wind.

This would be fire weather if not for the rainfall-triggered lushness of the vegetation.  Also, the dry matter of the fields has been largely worked & our spring crops planted.

Those showers to our north along the cold front right now will dry up with time with these dew points.  If anything would hold on, it would be very little rainfall.

COOLER WEDNESDAY, BIT WARMER THURSDAY………STILL VERY DRY AIR WITH DESERT-STEPPE DEW POINTS….

North-northeast winds to 25 mph, dew points in the 20s & 30s & highs in the 70s Wednesday will result in tremendous evaporation.  Even Thursday will have bone-dry air with sunshine & highs in the upper 70s to 80 resulting in moisture loss.

HOT WEEKEND……………

Heat will be ON this weekend with highs around 90 with a strong wind & a gradual, but not especial increase in humidity.

SOME SCATTERED STORMS MONDAY NIGHT-EARLY TUESDAY MORNING WITH 40% COVERAGE……….

Some scattered storms are possible Monday night-early Tuesday morning (40%), otherwise, there is no real rain until late into the month.

It is incredibly dry with a temperature of 82 as of 2:45 p.m. with a dew point of only 33 at WLFI.

Dry west to southwest winds are blowing up to 20 mph.

A surface cold front is moving through Wisconsin, which will bring slightly cooler weather in Wednesday.

It is so incredibly dry, I currently don’t see how we will be able to squeeze any rainfall from it, but some very high-based, isolated hail-producing storms will fire in Iowa, Wisconsin & northern Illinois to Michigan.

Today was warm & very dry with highs of 77-82.  Our relative humidity dropped to 20% this evening at the station.   At one point today, the temperature was 80 with a dew point of 32 at Rochester, leading to relative humidity levels to 17%.

With very dry air & clear, calm conditions tonight, some shallow fog will develop in places & temperatures will drop to 45-48.

Highs of 80-85 are likely Tuesday with dew points in the 41-46 range.  This, with a dry west-southwest wind, will lead to extremely dry air & high evaporation rates.

On Tuesday, highs will run 72-79, but dew points in the 20s & 30s & a breeze will make for extreme evaporation rates & very, very low humidity.

With a very dry pattern, the re-expansion of light drought or abnormally dry conditions, is likely across the viewing area by late week.

I have to say I am really excited to be at Purdue’s baseball game against Indiana State on Tuesday night. It will be a historic night as the final game will be played at Lambert Field.

What a year this has been for the Boilers! I don’t think there was a better way to close out the final season at Lambert Field than the show the Boilers have put on this year. I had the opportunity to be at the game on Saturday, when Purdue beat Michigan 14-3 to win a share of the Big Ten Title for the first time since 1909. I think I was having as much fun as the players! I have always been a big Purdue fan and to be out there on the field when they made history was pretty special!

I am hoping the Boilers can take care of business against Iowa and own the Big Ten Title outright. I believe they will!

But as far as Tuesday night’s game, I am excited that I have the opportunity to cover it. I worked as a sports anchor in Terre Haute for almost five years and had the opportunity to cover Indiana State. If you don’t know much about this Sycamores’ baseball team, let me tell you they are pretty good! They are 40-12 on the season and I believe they are ranked 28th in the nation right now. Most of Indiana State’s team is made up of local talent from around the Vigo County area. I really enjoyed getting to know most of those players and cover them in high school.

So, this game has a little extra special meaning to it for me, but don’t worry I am a Purdue fan through and through! So, I hope Purdue makes a statement and sends Lambert Field out the right way, with a win! It should be a blast and I hope that everyone that plans on attending the game really enjoys it!

Also, I have seen some pictures of Alexander Field and it looks sweet! I can’t wait to cover Purdue games there next season!

Follow me on twitter:@sportsguycaleb

–Caleb

A hot, dry weather patten is settling in with a blocking upper ridge establishing itself over a good chunk of the U.S., especially the Midwestern part.

Very dry air will result in high evaporation rates, so you will notice lakes, rivers & streams going down very quickly with soils drying out rapidly.

This said, late in May, some storms are likely with higher humidity.

There is a slight cool-down in store Wednesday & another edging towards Memorial Day.  However, by & large, a July, even August pattern is setting up.

We got our cold front through with only a few isolated showers & many of you saw not a drop of rain.  On this Mother’s Day, it is beautiful in our area, but nasty & rainy in southern Indiana & Kentucky.  Once you get to Indianapolis & southward, it turn cloudy.  Once you get southeast of Indianapolis, you run into the rain & you have rain all the way to Florida.

As for us, the heat is building in quicker than expected earlier.  That said, today we are headed well into the 70s, but near 80 Monday & in the 80s Tuesday, followed by many days of 80s & eventually some 90s.  However, tonight lows will drop into the 40s with the dry air in place.

In terms of rainfall, it still looks like we really won’t get into any until late month.

Our weather will be dominated by a persistent, blocking upper ridge, similar to what we had in March & over part of April.

The year 1909 should not be brought up any longer when referencing the Purdue Baseball team unless you are counting how many total Big Ten Championships each school has. That’s right, the drought is OVER…

“We have been talking about it for a long time and finally the day came when we were a game away and then we saw Indiana lost. So, we knew today was the day and I don’t think anything was going to stop us today from getting this,” said senior Eric Charles.

If they win tomorrow and sweep the Wolverines their final Big Ten series at Lambert Field will get even better. The 14th-ranked Boilers (39-9 overall, 16-4 in the Big Ten) could win the title outright.

Now, the Boilermakers will try to regroup. As hard as that may be for a program that went more than 100 years between titles.

I’m interested to see how this team plays not only Sunday but also on Tuesday in the final home game EVER at Lambert Field. Then comes their 3 game road series against Mike Cleff’s Iowa Hawkeyes…I believe this team understands their season has really just begun.

“That was our first goal to get the Big Ten championship but it is definitely not our final goal and now it is time to move on and get to the tournament and just go from there. This is just another step,” said senior Lance Breedlove.

It was a perfect spring day with wall-to-wall sun, highs of 75-80 & extremely low humidity.

WEEKEND:

Our surface cold front will approach & pass Saturday with isolated showers & t’showers (25%) with highs of 74-81 from north to south.  With the front getting hung up a bit with a spinning upper low to our south, a few isolated showers & t’showers may pop from time to time Saturday night to early Sunday morning (25%).  Sunday afternoon & evening looks partly cloudy & dry with 67-71.

Due to the isolated nature of the rain, some of you will get through this entire weekend without a single drop of rainfall.

 LOTS OF HOT, DRY WEATHER ON THE WAY…….ONE COOL-DOWN AROUND MEMORIAL DAY…..

The story next week will be heat & dry weather with June- & July-type temperatures overspreading the area.  The temperatures look ABOVE-NORMAL & rainfall BELOW-NORMAL May 15-23 with peak highs of 90-94.

Some storms will arrive amidst increasingly high humidity, with the heat, late month.  Cool-down to 70s still looks possible near Memorial Day, but long-range analysis suggests an intense burst of heat with 92-97 around June 8.

Some isolated showers & t’showers are possible Saturday-Saturday night with partly cloudy skies.  Highs will run 76-81 & lows Saturday will run 54-59.

A couple isolated showers may linger into early Sunday morning, otherwise, Mother’s Day looks good with some sun & highs of 67-71.

Some of you will not see a single drop of rain this weekend, however.