Cool and overcast

It is a cool, 37º  partly sunny morning here in Augusta Maine. with today's high  reaching the mid 40's, and clouds will move in by the afternoon.

This morning's readings are:

a relative humidity of 75% with a Dew Point of 32.8ºF.

The temperature is 40.1ºF, with a very slight wind chill at this time. 

The wind velocity is presently between 2.3 mph and 7.1 mph out of the West.

Our Barometric pressure is 29.81  and holding steady.

Visibility today is clear at 10.0 miles.

There was no rainfall in the past 24 hours, with none in today's forecast.   

My weather readings are taken from my La Crosse WS 2811 wireless weather station. I enjoy having one and find it personally rewarding to know just how inaccurate the national weather service readings for our area are.  

There is an entire world of weather out there for those who don't have their own weather station. You can look for it in a variety of ways, and the wealth of weather related information online these days seems endless.

How about finding weather forecasts by zip code?

http://www.emergencyemail.org/weather-forecast-zip.asp

 

And, if weather is an interest of yours, what about reading up on weather disasters for 2011? This short article was easily found:

 

As hurricane season intensifies in the Atlantic Ocean and wildfires continue to ravage the southern state of Texas, officials are saying the U.S. has seen a historic number of destructive and costly weather disasters in 2011.

The National Climatic Data Center says the U.S. so far this year has suffered through a record-breaking 10 climate-related disasters, each causing over $1 billion in economic damage.

The most recent extreme weather event was Hurricane Irene, which caused massive floods and knocked out power to hundreds of thousands of homes across the densely populated east coast in August.

Throughout much of the south and midwest, an extended heatwave and drought has caused over $5 billion in agricultural damage and sparked a series of deadly wildfires. In Texas, wildfires have destroyed more than 1,000 houses and burned over 50,000 hectares of land in recent weeks.

Other parts of the U.S. have also experienced massive blizzards, deadly tornadoes, and severe flooding in 2011.

Many scientists attribute the increased natural disasters to global warming, saying a warmer atmosphere is more likely to power dangerous storms.

The NCDC study estimates that, even before Hurricane Irene, this year disasters have meant a loss of $35 billion to the U.S. economy.