Scott, I remember about four months ago you gave an explanation for why the “spring” season in the eastern third of the country might better be called the “monsoon” season. Another season has passed, and the weather hasn’t changed. Basically, it rains all the time. What’s the deal? What can we learn about the meaning-of-weather from this siege? Maybe the info can be shared with the idle tennis players in NYC, who look as if they’ll never get on the court (to judge by the prog charts).
And, are we allowed to blame you for this? Just curious, JIm F
Here in Wausau, WI if it hasn’t been watered it’s dead. We where 6" below normal for rain this summer. It’s “Dust Bowl” dry here and no rain predicted for the forseeable future either.
Check out my IFR article, Blocking Patterns reprinted with permission on my web site. Even though this pattern is not as strong as the spring, we are locked into a pattern that is stationary, but finally moving out at the end of this week!
An no, I’m tired of being blamed…[;)], but I’m getting pretty close with a few ducks in the neighborhood!
I had to cancel an Angel Flight–unheard of around here in early September–this morning due to the impenetrable line of cumulonimbi (some with hail) that stretched from Santa Rosa to Sacramento and down the valley almost to Fresno.
Seems like we’ve nbeen getting a bit of monsoon ourselves.
Here in Wausau, … We where 6" below normal for rain this summer.
Here in Kentucky we are 6" below too. Er, Oh! My Bad. I should say thae we are 6" below water. Here if it doesn’t float it’s drowned! I haven’t seen such rain since I lived in South Florida.
All of that water survival training and equipment has really come in handy.
And here in S Florida we’ve had so much rain that Lake Okeechobee is way over its acceptable height. Huge quantities of water are being pumped out into the canal system causing other ecological problems.
Oh, forgot to add, when I was in Vegas a few weeks ago we had days of T-storms and flooding. We’re talking Vegas in the Summer!!!
It isn’t that unusual for Las Vegas to catch several convective days every summer when the monsoonal crud from Arizona and New Mexico gets a tug from the thermal low over the deserts or a shove from the Four Corners high.
As a matter of fact, historicaly the highest rainfall month for Las Vegas is August!
It isn’t that unusual for Las Vegas to catch several convective days every summer when the monsoonal crud from Arizona and New Mexico gets a tug from the thermal low over the deserts or a shove from the Four Corners high.
Gordon: I think we have a difference in magnitude. It appears that Las Vegas averages less than 1/2" of rain in August or any other month for that matter, with only 3 days of rain, per month. I checked the Washington Post historical WX http://www.washingtonpost.com/wp-srv/weather/longterm/historical/data/las_vegas_nev.htminfo and Vegas gets an average of just over 4 inches per year.
While I was there, it rained on three days. One part of town received over three inches on just opne of those days. You may recall watching national TV about 3 weeks ago and seeing the fire department being rescued from the flood waters by helicopter. As far as scale is concerned, the media claimed the rain that day was bigger than the last ‘100 year’ flood which occurred 3 or four years ago, I would consider the event a little bigger than average.
I think we have a difference in magnitude. It appears that they average less than 1/2" of rain in August or any other month, with only 3 days of rain, max per month.
Yep - you hit the jackpot, Marty! I remember that day. The August overall average is very much an average. Convection in the area isn’t that uncommon but is usually sparse, so you only get contributions to the average when it actually dumps right over the rain gauge. But it does tend to be a very wet event when it does happen!
This data points out that the highest August total was 2.12 inches, while the lowest was zero, over a ten year period. I’d bet a black chip that the 2.12 inches fell all on one day.
Hi Scott – in New Zealand the last two weeks, where it was freezing cold and raining/sleeting the whole time. I may be bringing my own microclimate with me. Very beautiful today, though. Proverbial calm before the storm.
I had 925PW at LNS for the last few days. When I stopped in to pick mine up, yours was sitting outside and looking quite nice…not to fear down under, 711DZ is in good hands, and it looks like the worst of Isabel will be well west of LNS.