Harvest Moon Tomoorrow!

Kickoff Forecast 9/29

It's Friday and you know what that means. Friday Night Football!!! Here is your Kickoff Forecast for area H.S. Football Games.

Kickoff Forecast: Partly cloudy.
Temp: 52°-57°
POP: 5%

Skies will become clear towards the end of the game with temperatures dropping into the upper 40's and lower 50s.

Fall Colors Beginning To Show

Expected dates of best color for Fall foliage. Our area is expected
to see the best colors around October15-21.
Image from: DCNR

With the cooler days and nights beginning to occur, leaves around the region are beginning to slowly change color. The different colors of the leaves and the time they change are ultimately affected by the amount of sunlight that the tree receives, the weather, and the amount of soil moisture.  The amount of sunlight is a gradual process and in the fall is a slowly decreasing one.   Soil moisture plays a role and depends on the past Spring, Summer, and early Fall's precipitation. The weather however can be variable with each day and tends to be the deciding factor on how colorful the leaves get. 

According to the DCNR, carotenoids (a type of pigment), gives leaves their yellow color in the Fall and is always present. So even in the worse case scenario, the leaves will at least be a semi-pretty yellow color. The red and vibrant colors that everybody loves are affected by temperature and soil moisture.  To get the beautiful red and purple colors, consecutive warm & sunny days and cool crisp nights are needed.  In term of soil moisture, a warm wet Spring and "favorable" Summer weather are needed. 

Our Spring was a slightly below average on precipitation and above average on temperatures. The Summer was also the same however we have had an above average September for precipitation so the recent rain may help our colors. 

If you have any pictures of Fall foliage, please send them to jordan@crawfordweather.com or post them on our Facebook wall!

If you are interested in reading more about leaves and their changing color check out this pages from the DCNR.

http://www.dcnr.state.pa.us/ucmprd2/groups/public/documents/document/dcnr_013179.pdf

Also, check out the weekly Fall foliage reports from the DCNR:

http://www.dcnr.state.pa.us/ucmprd2/groups/public/documents/document/dcnr_013180.pdf

If you are interested in reporting Fall foliage, then check out this site:

http://www.yankeefoliage.com/live-fall-foliage-map/

See Ya Summer...

The official summer season is coming to an end. Autumn officially begins at 10:49 AM Saturday.

Kickoff Forecast 9/21

It's Friday again and that means another night of local high school football! Plenty of games are on tap this weekend in Crawford County so before you head over to the game, make sure you know the weather! Here is your CrawfordWeather.com Kickoff Forecast:

Forecast:  Clouds will be increasing throughout the evening and skies should be mostly cloudy by kickoff. Rain is unlikely during kickoff but some showers may enter the county towards the end of the game so bring an umbrella just to be safe.  Temperatures will be around 60 to start and will drop to the mid to lower 50s by the end of the game so dress warm! Winds will generally be light and out of the WSW.  GOOD LUCK TO AREA TEAMS!

Precipitation Totals 9/18

Tuesday proved to be a rain maker, just not for our area. Locations in southern and eastern Pennsylvania received over 2 and 3 inches. However here in Crawford County, we only saw a fraction of this with most locations receiving under an inch of rain. All the models had at least an inch for our area with one model saying above 2 inches. The problem with relying on the models to forecast precipitation is that they usually over exaggerate how much will fall which is what happened. Of course I bit into the models and believed that we would at least clip the inch mark but the heaviest bands were to our east. Anyways, we did receive a decent amount which will help with our "abnormally dry" situation we are still in. Here are some precipitation totals for Tuesday September 18.

Kickoff Forecast 9/7/12

Kickoff Forecast: Rain showers or even a thunderstorm is possible at kickoff.  Precip chances increase throughout the night so it would be smart to bring an umbrella. 

Nice Friday, Rainy Saturday, and Cooler Days Ahead.

Brief Forecast Discussion:

 A weak front will move through tomorrow that could spark up a few showers/storms. However things will clear out for Friday and skies will be partly cloudy. Saturday is looking like a pretty wet day with rain showers likely

Monday's maximum temperatures
Image: NOAA

for most of the day. Things will cool down as well as a trough digs deep into the central and eastern US. This will bring cooler weather for the end of the weekend and the beginning of next week. I'm talking upper 60s for highs.  As the trough digs in, high pressure should remain around for a couple days so sunshine should be expected for early next week. It will feel like a typical autumn day. Pretty soon the leaves will be changing!

 

Fall like cool down coming.

 

August Review, September Outlook

August 2012 Summary
Avg High (°F)	Avg Low (°F)	Total Precip (in)
79	60	3.11
Average Values
Avg High (°F)	Avg Low (°F)	Total Precip (in)
78	59	3.6
Difference
Avg High (°F)	Avg Low (°F)	Total Precip (in)
1	1	-0.49

We were one degree warmer for the average high and low for August and 0.49 inches below the average for precipitation. 

September Outlook: 

According tot he CPC, we have a good chance of being above average for temperatures and about normal for precipitation. 

September Averages

High Temp: 72°
Low Temp: 52°
Precip:  4.26"

Add caption

Temperature outlook for September.
Image: CPC

Precipitation Outlook for September.
Image: CPC