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April 16, 2009

Weather Watch

Anonymous The Cooperstown Crier Thu Apr 16, 2009, 03:57 PM EDT

By MARK HANOK

Now that north has become a synonym for sunshine and south has become a synonym for rain, there’s no way that this extremely dry weather pattern can change at least for the next four weeks.

In fact, we’ll be very lucky to get a third of the normal precipitation for April, and we’ll get very little rain during the first half of May.

Since we’ll get many brilliantly sunny days through the middle of May, and the evaporation rate is very high this time of year, the water level in the Susquehanna River could be unusually low for the General Clinton Canoe Regatta on Memorial Day weekend.

One of the best key indicators for a continuation of this exceptionally dry weather pattern, was on April 7 when there were snow flurries in Atlanta while highs were around 70 degrees in Montana.

Since then we just can’t break the pattern of every storm sliding well to the south and missing our area. The most recent storm on Tuesday and Wednesday completely missed Otsego County, without a trace of rain.

On Friday another major storm will move across the southern Great Plains, eastern Texas could get some much-needed rain. High pressure from the Great Lakes to mid-Atlantic states will bring spectacular weather to the Cooperstown area, with

unlimited sunshine, azureblue skies, and desert-dry air; highs from 65 to 70 degrees. Look for more of the same on Saturday as a back-door cold front stays to the north over northern New England. Skies will be mostly sunny with highs in the low 60s.

The familiar pattern will take shape on Sunday, as low pressure tracks eastward to Tennessee and spreads rain eastward to the Gulf States and north to the Ohio Valley. But even with the warmer air in the Northeast, upperlevel winds will still be out of the northwest and the rain will slide to the south once again.

It looks like a partly sunny Sunday with highs from 55 to 60 degrees. Sunshine will be followed by increasing cloudiness on Monday with highs in the mid-50s, then we could get some light rain on Monday night and Tuesday morning as the low moves east of the New England coast.

Then skies will be partly sunny Tuesday afternoon with a cool northerly breeze and highs from 50 to 55 degrees. Mark Hanok is an Otsego- based meteorologist.