The Roller Coaster Ride Continues...

Chief Meteorologist Craig Carnesi here...

A lot folks have been telling me they can't believe how hot it has been the last few days. You know what, they're right!

But... Think back to this time last week when we were tying record highs of 104 and 102, now that was HOT. Fast forward to today, the high temperature recorded at Abilene Regional Airport was only 91. Now Mother Nature does not have to do quite as much work to cool us down because "the tracks have already been laid."

This next cold front due to arrive in the Big Country sometime Wednesday afternoon/evening will bring in colder air because it will not modify near as much on the way down from Canada. Last week that air warmed through the plains states because the air was warmer there. This week, that air in the plains and Rockies, just like ours, is about 10-15 degrees cooler this week than it was at the same time last week.

Now to what is becoming a problem around here, the lack of rainfall. At Abilene Regional Airport we now stand with 16.11" of rain for 2005. This time last year we had racked up 23.81".
For the 2005, we are now 2.50" below our average rainfall. Now, we are by no means in dire straights here, but some rain sure wouldn't hurt. Unless you live in the Lake Stamford community of course. This cold front will probably have a much better shot at firing off a few isolated to scattered showers and thunderstorms.

The difference between this front is that we actually have moisture around for the rain. Last week we had just finished dealing with "Rita." Although we didn't see any rain from Rita, we did get a lot of dry air get pulled in through the Big Country into Rita. Because of the timing of Rita and the cold front, we just were not able to get sufficient moisture back in place last time around. This time, we're sitting at 9:00 p.m. with a 65 degree dewpoint versus dewpoints in the 30s and 40s last week.

It looks like this may be the end of our 90 degree weather as well. The "door to Canada" is now open and another cold front looks to arrive sometime early next week.

As always, if you have any questions, comments, complaints, heck even a compliment or two :-), feel free to post them here on the board or e-mail me a ccarnesi@krbc.tv.

Please, go out and make it a GREAT day!