What Happened Last Night?
By Quincy Vagell on April 18, 2012, 9:34am
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You may be wondering: What happened last night? (the frost advisory that didn't verify)
Well, I'll admit, I thought a lot of us were going to dip into the 30s by this morning. Especially since skies were mostly clear and dew-points were below 32 degrees. After looking at the observations, I saw that none of the official stations in CT even dropped below 40.
So, what happened?
It looks like there were two main reasons why lows weren't frosty:
- Winds kept blowin'
- Some clouds crept in
For ideal radiational cooling (lowest minimum temperatures), you need calm winds and clear skies. That didn't happen last night/this morning, especially the wind piece.
The red boxes show the gusty winds. In the case of New Haven, winds were very gusty! For Bradley, the winds were not nearly as strong, but the blue boxes show that clouds moved in.
So, lows only fell to 45 in Bradley, 47 at Meriden and 49 at New Haven. A far cry from the 30s to lower 40s that most forecasts had. The interesting thing is that MOS forecast guidance actually kept lows on the milder side, in the 40s. For here, it looks like we were quick to lean on the chilly side, but things didn't pan out quite as expected.
It wasn't a big bust though, I don't think many people were upset that it wasn't so chilly last night. If anything, it was better safe than sorry when it comes to keeping those outdoor plans safe from potential frost conditions. Also, I'm sure most of us wouldn't mind if the cold weather was kept away until much later this year, in the fall and winter months.
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