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As a warm airmass pushes up from the south and west, which will bring record-breaking warmth to much of the Atlantic seaboard this weekend, it is bringing heavy fog to much of the mid-Atlantic tonight. In fact, the National Weather Service has issued Dense Fog Advisories from South Carolina to New York (see all the counties shaded in grey on the map below).

Figure 1: Dense Fog Advisories for the Northeast US as of 1 AM EST on 1/12. Map courtesy Weather Underground.

This fog comes both from the rain that fell across the region earlier today and the melting snowpack due to warmer temperatures. In the already moist air as a result of today's rainfall, the water and vapor from the melting snow quickly condenses in the air close to the ground, resulting in fog.

With the relative heat wave going on for March, it's interseting to note where some early-day rainfall is putting a damper on temperatures in Western Pennsylvania. The vast majority of the state has already heated to the 60s this afternoon, while the western quarter of the state, or so, is stuck in the 50s still. I made this more obvious by plotting the 60 degree temperature line (called an isotherm) on the map of current (as of 1:30) observations below:

If you happened to be watching a temperature map tonight, you may have noticed that Johnstown, PA - a town nestled in the hills of the Laurel Highlands (famous for its several tragic floods), had the one of the warmest temperatures in the state. Why would one of the highest airports in the state have a warmer temperature than others lower in elevation?

Western PA Temperatures as of 12:40PM on October 10, 2011. Map courtesy Penn State Campus Weather Service.

Thunderstorms rocked Westmoreland County this evening, leaving behind several reports of downed trees and power lines and at least one unofficial report of a lightning strike on a Greensburg restaurant.

The first round of storms crossed entered the region after 7:00 PM, passing through Greensburg about 7:15, as seen in the radar graphic below. There were multiple reports of downed trees and powerlines in the Greensburg area in addition to a report of downed trees at Idlewild Park in Ligonier. According to the Tribune-Review, power was knocked out to a few thousand customers during the evening. In addition, the storms caused some localized flooding in spots. Finally, we also received word that Couzumel Mexican Restaurant was struck by lightning, causing a small electrical fire.

Hello all readers of thecloudonline.net! You may be surprised to see that the name of this site no longer matches the domain name in your address bar: weathersourcepa.com. This site has been offline for the better part of the past two months due to hosting difficulties.

My original web host, HostRail, suspended this site's account in early June and despite repeated attempts to reach the company, I never received solid response. That, until late June when the company announced they were going out of business immediately. After toying a few ideas around in my head for a few days, I came up with the domain name weathersourcepa.com and some time later purchased it via a great hosting company: A Small Orange! They're located right in Atlanta, GA and have hosted one of my business sites for several years now.