Thursday, May 19, 2011

19 May, 2011

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TODAY'S TOP WEATHER STORIES
On Weather & Climate Through the Eyes of Mark Vogan


Long-Feared Flood Rolls Toward La. Bayou Country
FOX NEWS

Floodwaters carve deadly trail of destruction
CNN

Officials see above-average hurricane season looming
CNN

Rainfall continues to elude southeast England
BBC

Northern Europe's farmers fear drought as bad as 1976
BBC

Atmosphere Above Japan Heated Rapidly Before M9 Earthquake
TECHNOLOGY REVIEW

TODAY'S WEATHER ACROSS AMERICA By Mark Vogan

Severe Weather with Tornadoes possible over Southern Plains tonight, still very wet across Northeast

Stronger, more dominant low sliding into the Southern Plains will kick out stubborn Northeast low, Finally, but messy weather still not quite done here yet!


The low that is deepening the western trough and forcing it into Texas and Oklahoma today and through tomorrow will enhance thunderstorms that blossom along the cold front all the way up into the Dakotas and Minnesota. With howlling NE winds in the upper levels, strong NW to N winds blowing hard at the surface and tremendous lift along the front will provide the perfect ingredients for not only the development of thunderstorms but the transition into rotating supercells thanks to the varying wind direction with height. What's also very important to remember is the fact that we have a very cold upper level atmospheric environment. With warmth and humidity at the surface and within the lowest depths of the atmosphere and -60, even -70C air inthe upper reaches, the lapse rate is extremely high (lapse rate: temperature difference with height). These storms are most likely to turn severe over central and eastern N. Texas, Oklahoma and into Kansas late this afternoon and through the evening, into the early hours of tomorrow, so if you live in this area, do not switch off from what your weather is doing outside.

Tomorrow will have a greater chance of turning severe from the Southern Plains all the way up into the Dakotas and Minnesota.


As for the Northeast, that very stubborn upper low which has kept those showers fast and frequent will get kicked off the US weather map thanks to yet another trouble make. Yes that low swinging into the Southern Plains is strong enough to finally kick this pain offshore. Yesterday and even the previous day saw in between sunshine which help boost temperatures at the surface. Because these showers and embedded thunderstorms ran into these sunny pockets in between, we did see some thunderstorms turn pretty strong with some which turned severe.

This will be the same from the I-95 corridor through this evening and the same will go for Friday where a widespread rain, of which, some persistent rains may turn into isolated downpours.

Then come Saturday, the Northeast's luck finally changes and we should see a drying out by Saturday.

Below is a story provided by The Weather Channel


TODAY'S WEATHER ACROSS UK & EUROPE By Mark Vogan

Another Atlantic front to effect Scotland tomorrow while the heat builds over most of European mainland!

Image from University of Cologne site

This will be a brief look at the European weather picture but I shall have a more in-depth look tomorrow.

As you can see clearly from this image above, a strong low pressure system just south of Iceland with a large ribbon of cloud aiming at western Scotland. This cold front will sweep eastwards and into western and central areas tonight and into tomorrow. This will bring a heavy band of rain across all western and central areas of Scotland and likely may weaken somewhat once clearing the bulk of the Highlands and Grampians. Accompanying this fresh push of choppy Atlantic weather will be a brisk SW wind which will touch gale-force along exposed western and southwestern harbours.

As for the rest of Europe. You can see some clouds floating over central and eastern Spain, these will grow by day, die off by night thanks to diurnal temperature swings. The reason is the upper low over the country that's providing the instability. (see the map below)

A more pronoucned band of clouds is over the Alps, providing some thunderstorms. Some whisps of cloudiness stretch over the Low Countries and up into central Scandinavia, this marks the boundary between the trough to the NW and high to the SE.

The rest of the continent is mostly cloud free and once the sun rises, surface temperatures across the board rise rapidly!


WEATHER TALK
By Mark Vogan

High Pressure has been dominant across Northern France, keeping rain-bearing Atlantic fronts further north than normal

The south and southeast of England has seen a mere 12% of the normal rainfall for May and folks, particularly gardeners are getting tired of dry soils and those soils continuing to dry out. While up in the north of England and particularly Scotland, we have seen the return of Atlantic low pressure influenced weather after, even up here, a prolonged dry spell in which brought pretty nasty wildfires across the Highlands. Now, like turning on a switch and after weeks of little, if any rain, it's now shower upon shower rattling in on a brisk westerly wind with low pressure nearby.

So what's going on? While up here in Scotland it's dull, dreary, cool and unsettled, it's a changing picture the further south you go. Though the southeast of England is bad with folks here over the South watching rain bands sweep southeastwards and then die out or pull due east into Denmark and across Scandinavia have a good reason for all this.

Have you noticed just how persistently warm it's been just across the English Channel in France. While Spain just 10 days ago, saw heavy, windswept rain, it was warm, perhaps borderline hot over central and north-central France. Now with Spain returned to a warmer, drier weather picture, yet again, it's warm to hot and very sunny across France.

The majority of western 'mainland' Europe has been dominated by stronger than normal high pressure and this has not only warded off clouds, but it's been continuing to evaporate moisture from the ground. The warmer the temperatures are, the faster the evaporation rate.

It could be that as time has gone on over the past 4 to 6 weeks and with rising temperatures that have dried out soils to the point of drought, then the soils and ground are most likely feeding back to the atmosphere, keeping the high strongest over this region, which is the driest on all of the continent when compared to normal.

As for the south of England, well it's not far from France. As a typical weather regime tries to resume over NW Europe or perhaps even return to a more April-like state, the fight between low off NW Scotland and the dominant and strong high over N. France has meant that SE moving cold fronts swung in from the low are being dissipated, absorbed or thrown east or northeast simply because the air is 1) too dry and 2) the high pressure cell is too strong. With SE England's close proximity to N. France, we're seeing rains die out before reaching London and SE.

VAGARIES OF THE WEATHER
INDIA & SUB-CONTINENTAL ASIA WEATHER
BY RAJESH KAPADIA

Monsoon Watch - 7 (Part 2) - Quantum and initial Strength. Will be up on Friday, 20th, at 12.30 pm.



Highest in Asia on Thursday, 19th May:

Sibi (Pakistan) 49c, Nawabshah( Pakistan) 48c, Pilani( Raj.India) 47.4c, Ganganagar(India) 47.3c, Basrah (Iraq) 47c.

Latest Night Temperatures above 30c:

India: Satna 31.1c, Bikaner 31.0c, Jharsuguda 31.0c, Jabalpur 30.5c, Raipur 30.3c.

Many places in Nepal had good rains on Thursday. Amongst the heavy falls, Biratnagar measured 43.5 mms, whilst Kathmandu guaged 21.4 mms today. The temperature range on Thursday stood between 27.5c and 15.9c.Close to Vagaries' estimates -:)


Click here to see our partner's blog.

WHAT'S REACHING TODAY'S BLOGS?


Heat Builds Over South and South West Asia
Jim Andrews, International Expert, AccuWeather

Pakistan Weather Update & Monsoon Alert (May 19-May 24)
Pakistan Weather Portal

Showers Into The Later Evening
Philly Weather.net

THE EXTREMES OF THE DAY

TODAY'S US EXTREMES
COURTESY OF ACCUWEATHER

HIGH: 104 degrees at Laredo, TX
LOW: 19 degrees at Berthoud Pass, CO

TODAY'S UK EXTREMES
COURTESY OF THE MET OFFICE

HIGH: 71 degrees (21.5C) at Charlwood (Surrey)
LOW: 33 degrees (0.5C) at Santon Downhamm (Suffolk)

TODAY'S GLOBAL EXTREMES
COURTESY OF THE UNIVERSITY OF COLOGNE

HIGHEST

49C (120F) at Kiffa, Mauritinia (Africa)
49C (120F) at Sibi, Pakistan (Asia)
47C (117F) at Pilani, India (Asia)
47C (117F) at Basra, Iraq (Asia)
44C (112F) at Cuidad Valles, Mexico (North America)
43C (109F) at Doha, Qatar (Asia)

LOWEST

-78C (-108F) at Vostok Station, Antarctica
-30C (-22F) at Summit Camp, Greenland
-15C (5F) at Igloolik, Nunavut, Canada (North America)

TODAY'S EXTREMES HERE AT MY HOUSE

HIGH: 59 degrees
LOW: 45 degrees

Thanks for reading.
-Mark

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