TODAY'S TOP WEATHER STORIES
On Weather & Climate Through the Eyes of Mark Vogan
9 Atlantic hurricanes forecast in busier-than-average season
USA TODAY
Splendid Weather through Sunday in UK, Western Europe
ACCUWEATHER NEWS
Summer Skiing? Head West!
THE WEATHER CHANNEL
TODAY'S WEATHER ACROSS THE UK & EUROPE
By Mark Vogan
Major Rains pummel western and central Scotland keeping it cool whilst much of England enjoys sunshine and 20 to 23C temperatures
With a strong plume, even hosepipe-like flow of deep sub-tropical moisture flowing from the Azores Islands directly up into the west coast of Scotland today, we've seen tremendous rainfall. Especially over higher ground where this moisture rich air can flow upwards, cool and condense, producing even heavier rains. From Dumfries and Galloway in the southwest, Argyll stretching towards Greater Glasgow in the west-central region to Lochaber, Moidart in the northwest Highlands, flooding and poor travel conditions were a problem throughout much of today, this also kept temperatures down, but still remained mild thanks to the origin of this air flow.
This weather pattern today is all thanks to high pressure centered over France and Spain and a clockside flow riding around this high. This warm air mass has produced temperatures as warm as 30C over Portugal and Spain and with a clockwise flowing cycling around the core has forced very warm air up into Great Britain. Drive that warm air across the Atlantic and it has plenty of distance to pick up copious amounts of rain. The problem has been that we have seen a flow alignment straight from the sub-tropical Azores straight into northwest Highland Scotland.
As well as pulling the very moist air across western and central Scotland today, warm air has really flurished where the sun has managed to shine. Under those heavy, rain bearing clouds temperatures have been only at around 12 to 14C, but where that sun has shawn and that has been east of the Highlands, which managed to grab much of that sub-tropical Atlantic rainfall meant sunshine for rain shadow areas of Moray and Aberdeenshire. Temperatures have reached 19 to 20C here today.
As you can see from the above map, the orange colours on the map show well over southern parts of Britain and even across sections of Yorkshire where temperatures did top 21C (70F), well above the average of around 12C (54F) for this time of year. Once further south, those early to midmorning southwest winds really helped excellerate that warm air sitting across France to pull north and over the Channel, allowing highs to at least reach 22C in many areas in and around London. I believe somewhere has likely reached 23C or 73F this afternoon. The warmest I actually saw was 22.9C at Gravesend, Kent.
The southern portion of the UK wasn't the only warm area across the western continent today. Many areas of France where this warm air travelled across to get into the UK saw mid-20s C, perhaps even upper 20s C (77 to 80F) whilst highs reached the upper 20s to perhaps low 30s C across Spain (near or above 90F). These temperatures are certainly well above the seasonal norm even for here.
BRIEF COOL DOWN BY MONDAY, TUESDAY BUT BY WEDNESDAY HIGH APPEARS TO WANT TO REBUILD
As you can see from the graphic above for next Wednesday, high pressure again appears to want to build north from Spain back into the UK, presenting us with more sunny, warm weather. After this weekend, the ridge retreats and a more direct westerly flow aims at the UK, bringing cooler but still mild air across the UK.
TODAY'S WEATHER ACROSS AMERICA
By Mark Vogan
All in all, the 1,200+ severe weather reports was exceptional when compared to the past
Largescale pattern favours more 'major severe weather outbreaks' this season
Another Significant Severe Weather Outbreak Is Coming
TWC
Given the fact there's plenty of very warm, moisture rich air available over the Gulf and Southern Tier, a still-active Pacific storm track across the country and cool air to the north, it's going to be a long Severe Weather Season of 2011
Because the figure topped 1,000 for wind damage within 24-hours, this appears to be a modern record for number of severe weather reports inside a single day.
However, it's still early into the severe weather season and given what we've seen already and that type of pattern in control across the US, it's going to get worse before it gets better unfortunately.
Warmth will only get warmer and humidity only more humid as we enter mid-April. Given the fact that we've got a deepening trough over the Great Basin, a storm system riding in from the Pacific and ridging over the East, we will see isolated severe weather chances from later this afternoon and through this weekend over the Mississippi, Tennessee and Ohio Valleys as the storm rolls through.
Unfortunately, it's early next week that may see another major severe weather outbreak in the same areas that got slammed by the storm's cold front just a few days ago. An upper low will support a surface low Monday through Tuesday next week and this will align a strong surface flow out of the south, pulling 80-degree air and super moist air out of the Gulf at the same time a strong cold front sweeps eastwards. Along this front, like we saw a few days ago, a long cluster of strong to severe thunderstorms will form as this surface energy converges and rises along the frontal boundary. Howling southerly surface winds will strike the front, forcing them to rise and infuse with a powerhouse westerly jet. The surface convergence combined with divergence aloft spells major tornadic potential early next week. STAY TUNED.
WEATHER TALK
By Mark Vogan
WHAT'S REACHING TODAY'S BLOGS?
Endless Perth Summer, Is It Ending?
Jim Andrews, International Expert, AccuWeather
The Winter That Wouldn't Die
Joe Lundburg, AccuWeather
Over 500 Reports of Severe Weather this Weekend
Henry Margusity, AccuWeather
new: what's on the weatherbell blogs today?
More on the Global Cooling event that is taking place.
Joe Bastardi's Blog, WeatherBell.com
Monday was one of the biggest days for severe weather
Joe D'Aleo's Blog, WeatherBell.com
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TODAY'S EXTREMES HERE AT MY HOUSE
HIGH: 56 degrees
LOW: 52 degrees
Thanks for reading.
-Mark
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