I was worried about a tornado outbreak. Apparently, that happened. 65 degrees in the morning on a Feb day? I think we are in for it. Hang on to your hats.

65 degrees BEFORE THE SUN HAS EVEN RISEN. I can't wait to go to college and get out of this hazy, sweaty mud-hole they call Washington.

65 degrees at 6:30, even here in the mts.,
with a 10 mph warming downslope westerly wind.

At least 31 dead in south central states from tornados.

The DGX, GFS, and ECMWF are coming together on a snow potential at 150-174 hrs. Verification would give 1-3 inches to many from a weak system to our south. Persistence now from several GFS runs.

Sara in Oakton, when you say "we are in for it," I think I've gotta agree with you there. Days we've had a serious severe weather outbreak have started off EERILY close to today. I have a feeling my weather radio will get a big workout this afternoon/evening. I just hope it waits until I am OUT of school. I don't want to sit against the wall of a classroom downstairs for an hour like I had to on November 16, 2006 when there was a tornado warning... Yes, I'm geeky enough to remember the date. LOL

Today does look potentially wicked... but, severe often underperforms here.

Storm Prediction Center has us under a pretty good tornado risk, especially for February. They are keeping the chance of an upgrade from slight to moderate risk as well.

it's so hot out for february! where did winter go? and didn't i say this about fall a few months ago?

Tornado death toll now 45

Agreed on the wierdness of the morning weather...it just feels wrong today. And I work in a trailer-not a great place during unstable patterns.

61.5 in northwest Montgomery. The national radar seems to show the most severe weather sliding to our south. Lets hope so.

While I am not one of the serial complainers about the move to WaPo, I notice lately that there is much less posting (actually none) on political/weather topics like climate change, the budget for NASA and NWS, etc.

Is that no longer going to be a feature here? I was really disappointed last week when there was no discussion of the recent report linking climate change with reduced snow pack and drought in the West. (see http://www.washingtonpost.com/wp-dyn/content/article/2008/01/31/AR2008013101868.html?tid=informbox) I was hoping to hear some views from folks on here with more of a scientific background regarding the merits of the study. I found it a little dubious, given that many locations in the West have snowpacks well above normal this year (granted, only one year), and that it was based on only 50 years of data. But again, was hoping to read some other viewpoints.

Never thought I would be excited for a tornadoes in Feb. Usually I am requesting feet of snow. Since winter as been such a let down, maybe we can actually see some action around here.

We haven't had a good thunderstorm in a *long* time. I hope this turns into something today.

Blowtorch: No good. I'm afraid this could end "winter" even before the usual Presidents' day weekend cutoff.

Augusta Jim, one to three inches of snow is no good for me, especially with this blowtorch minimizing the chances for a ground freeze in the event of a cold spell. I'd much rather see one to three FEET!!!

Ian: My stomach sank when you posted that. Like I said earlier, it just needs to hold off until after 200 this afternoon. Lake Ridge has been fortunate in the last 10 or so years in that tornadoes have gone around us and not directly hit the town. Let's hope that streak holds today.

I could use a good thunderstorm though. We didn't have too many last summer. I could just do without the tornadoes.

I'd love to see some analysis (for dummies) on why this particular system is so volatile and why our area is specifically targeted with a higher tornado risk than the rest of the affected region.

Answers to questions like--how does a warm front this strong happen in February and why is it producing so much severe weather? Answers to other questions I don't even know enough to ask!

I feel like there has been less attention to EXPLAINING the weather on here lately. Maybe I'm wrong, and I do appreciate the forecasting. I dunno.

SouthsideFFX,
Thanks for having a broader interest than in when the kiddies get their next snow day. Please express your concerns to the management.

Record falls as of 11am

Cold front, I mean. I'm feeling so uncharacteristically warm that I forgot what was going on for a minute. Wow...it's hot out there!

Laura -- Thanks for the feedback. I don't think there's been any more or less explaining than before, but if that's the impression you get then it's good for us to hear that, and we will keep it in mind.

Regarding today in particular, we do see strong warm fronts along with severe weather threat from time to time in February. So while unusual, it's certainly not unprecedented.

Man, I feel robbed. Weather dot com predicted a 100% chance of Thunderstorms after three all day. We didn't see hide nor hair of flash nor rumble nor even drop.