Today's Top Weather Stories
On Weather & Climate Through the Eyes of Mark Vogan
It's Hotter in Billings than Miami
THERE'S TWO SIDES TO EVERY CANADIAN HIGH IN OCTOBER
By Mark Vogan
The High of cool, Canadian origin is bringing a taste of fall to the Midwest and Great Lakes with cool daytime highs only in the 50s and 60s and lows which are tumbling into the 40s and even 30s, yet to the west, winds blowing out of the south is pushing Desert air all the way up into Montana bringing very warm, unseasonable air into an area normally cooling considerably this time of year. In fact Billings, Montana is roasting with a current 87-degree reading, which likely is their high whilst pretty much every Southern location is cooler than what Billings is right now, note that Miami is 83 degrees, Atlanta is a mere 65.. though these locales further east and south have likely peaked already as they do usually following the time difference of course!
As you'll see from the graphic above, Buffalo, NY is a mere 48 whilst to the north and west, International Falls is 61, having plunged to 26 this morning... Int Falls is warmer than further south in Minneapolis which is only 59, even in far western NC, temps are only in the low 50s as of the late afternoon hours!
It's so cool because of the Canadian air mass in control over the Great Lakes and is rotating air from central Canada down into the Mississippi Valley, this will help leaves change colour down in the Lower Mississippi River Valley which is always later with fall than further upstream and should allow southern residents to breathe a shy of relief after what has been a very long, hot summer.
I always find it facinating when these types of pattern set up, as with the incoming fall-like air, when you've a highly amplified pattern across the United States, you've pretty much always got warm air pushing north to compensate the cool air driving south, this is a classic example of this today as the near 90-degree heat is being transported on the backside of the high centered over the Lakes all the way from the desert to Western-Interior Canada, of course the warm to hot air flow which is likely being enhanced down downsloping off the east face of the Rockies is one of cool and dry further east as folks in Minnesota, Wisconsin, Michigan and down into Illinois are on the east side of the high and on the other side of the jet stream (the cold side) and thus the 80s on one side are compensated by 50s and 60s on the other...
First lake-effect snow flurries of the season in the Upper Peninsula of Michigan
CIMSS Satellite Blog
Today's Weather across America
From AccuWeather
Jack Frost Visits Midwest, Interior Northeast
By Meghan Evans, Meteorologist
Coolest Air in Months Coming to Southwest Deserts
By Kristina Pydynowski, Senior Meteorologist
Days of Dampness for Mid-Atlantic, Southern New England
By Kristina Pydynowski, Senior Meteorologist
Storms in the West Threaten Flash Flooding, New Fires
By Meghan Evans, Meteorologist
Weather Talk
By Mark Vogan
Topsy Turvy October Weather for the United Kingdom
OUR CHANCE OF GALE FORCE WINDS ON THE INCREASE
As we progress deeper into October, the calander is matching well with the atmosphere as Atlantic depressions are very much making their presense felt across Britain with periods of 1-2 days of rain, and a little wind, then a clear slot arrives for a day and night bringing a small window of dry weather as well as a marked drop in temperatures before the next onslaught of rain and squally weather pushes in from the Atlantic, very typical of October.
I am watching as those low's swing in, their tighening up as we head deeper into Autumn. Watch on the weather forecast as your eating your dinner at how we're likely to see an increase in not so much rainfall (as we've seen tremendous amounts of rain anyway) with these depressions but wind energy as colder air from the north and still warm air from the south meet where the low pressure is. Their circulation pulls in the air from the north and south which increases the instability and energy, a greater inbalance is then present, to bring equilibrium, isobars tighten and thus wind increases, natures way of neutralising the imbalance.
During the summer months, there's little cold air and thus when depressions arrive, their less windy and more rainy, even the rain (typically) has a more drizzly nature, though recent summers of course have seen heavy, torrential rains, likely due to warm surrounding waters which may be resonsible for the increase in summer rainfall in the UK.
My conclusion to this discussion is that as October arrives, the reason for the increase in "stormy" weather rather than rainy, dull weather is because the colder air is building and easier to tap as these Atlantic low pressure systems trek eastwards into the UK, the still warm air to the south is forced north and the increasingly cold air to the north is forced south, when this occurs, low's can "deepen", dropping their central pressure and therefore increasing the strength of winds, which can be seen on weather maps (look at how the isobars, get closer together, this shows stronger winds), often we see relatively rapid increases in temperature as the warm front swing through and then strong winds kick in ahead of the cold front on the backside, often producing gales across the country, particularly Scotland and Northern Ireland, which often bears the brunt of the stormiest weather, since these systems often track over northern Britain rather than across the south.
What's Reaching Today's Blogs?
Best Week of Autumn
Paul Douglas Weather Column, WeatherNation
The Extremes of the Day
Today's US Extremes
Courtesy of AccuWeather
High: 102 degrees at Gila Bend, AZ
Low: 20 degrees at Embarrass, MN
Today's UK Extremes
Courtesy of the Met Office
High: 68 degrees at Manston
Low: 45 degrees at Castlederg
Today's Extremes here at my house
High: 56 degrees
Low: 51 degrees
NOTE: Check out the Facebook Page for the "YouTube Weather of the Week"
Thanks for reading.
-Mark
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