Saturday, August 4, 2012

Active Northern US Weather Pattern to Continue

The active weather pattern that has plagued the Northern US for over a week now is to continue for time to come as the result of a trough in the Gulf of Alaska and a ridge in the Southwest.

A low pressure system in the Gulf of Alaska is poised to settle in over the next few days. Common to what has been recently observed, pieces of energy will break off of this parent disturbance in the Gulf of Alaska and move eastward.

As they move eastward, a ridge of high pressure extending from the Southwest into Canada will force the pieces of energy northward over the high pressure system. As the disturbances move south again after moving over the ridge, they will move south as the high pressure system's influences end.

The jet stream will help to force these pieces of energy south into the Northern Plains and Upper Midwest, where showers and storms may be initiated in the mentioned regions, similar to what is ongoing today (August 4) and what has happened in the past couple of weeks.

Long range forecasts have this low pressure system in the Gulf of Alaska breaking down, but long range forecasts are notorious for being a long ways off of what happens, so take that for what it's worth.

Andrew

2 comments:

Storm-Chaser Wx said...

well, i would hope that this pattern continues because northern and central iowa is in a moderate/severe drought, hopefully if this 'trough" decides to hang out a little longer, then maybe we can get some more precip before it gets any worse, thanx for the awesome reports on the weather! really gives me something to look forward to

Anonymous said...

Every little bit helps. Sat. rain gauge said 1/2 inch from the storm that rolled through. Storms came thru overnight and just now stopped. Rain gauge says 2 inches. That's the most rain that's hit my house in Indianapolis since April.
Never thought I'd be so happy to be awoken to thunder at 5am!