Changes Soon

Wow! What a super great weather day yesterday!  Wow!  We expect another super great weather day today!  High temperatures will be in the lower 70s with mostly sunny conditions.  But all good things must come to an end, or so I've been told in the past.  A strong storm system across the west coast will soon bring a chance of storms back to the region as soon as Wednesday morning.

The low level jet is expected to crank up early tomorrow morning as moisture begins to return across the state.  A few storms will be possible tomorrow morning across southern Kansas and northern OK as this process occurs.  I don't think we'll see a big severe weather threat, but you can't totally rule out a few hail storms Wednesday morning in a few spots. This severe threat remains low, but we should see a few storms on the radar scope across the northern part of the state, including the Tulsa metro.

 The higher storm chances will be arriving Thursday through Saturday.  The main system to the west will be sending several waves into the southern plains as a surface area of low pressure begins to form in the Lee of the Rockies.  South winds will be increasing as the pressure begins to fall and low level moisture will be transported from the Gulf into the southern plains.  The first part of the moisture transport may be anemic, but better quality moisture is expected by Friday.   Consequently the greater severe weather threat will be arriving as the deeper moisture begins to arrive during this period.  Buf kit profiles indicate an increase in surface CAPE and an increase in storm helicity.  This means the threat for significant severe storms may be increasing during this time period. 

 The main upper level pattern does not appear to change until late next week and the main upper level trough will be replaced by another western U.S. trough this weekend keeping our pattern very active.

The ensembles depict an active pattern through at least the 27th of May, and this could last into the first part of June. Basically our pattern will be reloading and not changing significantly for the next two weeks.

 Next:

Scatter shot;

I heard a great interview and discussion on public radio yesterday regarding the role of a modern day college education.  A recent book "Academically Adrift: Limited Learning on College Campuses "found that after four years of college, 36% of students learned almost nothing. One person in the discussion yesterday said some students are no better prepared for a career after university than they would have been if they had not attended a 4 year college.  The participants of the round table talk theorized that some students would be better served by utilizing 2 year programs from universities and then diving into traditional mentor relationships to learn the ropes.  The radio folks also said that a growing trend is to spend the junior year of study "abroad" which leads to an average degree completion now in 5 years instead of the traditional four.  This adds to the over whelming cost of the education, and the debt load carried by many students.  The end result:  kids moving back with mom and dad after school to save money.  It was a thought provoking discussion. 

Next:  High on the Hog.

I cooked pork chops last night.  I remembered a recipe from Julia Child about a pork marinade and decided to give it a try.  It was pretty good.  After a day long soak, I braised the chops first in the skillet on high to brown em up, and then placed them in the oven at 350 for about an hour.  I think next time I'll just grill em outside and cut out a step.  If you're interested in the marinade, just Google "  Julia Child's pork chop marinade".