Thursday May 2nd… Dear Diary. The main purpose of this ongoing blog will be to track United States extreme or record temperatures related to climate change. Any reports I see of ETs will be listed below the main topic of the day. I’ll refer to extreme or record temperatures as ETs (not extraterrestrials).😉
Wet And Wild…The Central U.S. Undergoes Destruction From Flooding And Storms
Seasonal prognosticators from the National Weather Service were certainly correct for spring 2019, forecasting a storm track such that systems would unleash heavy rain and storms, making life miserable for many across the central U.S. Unfortunately, I don’t see any significant change to the overall weather pattern anytime soon:
During colder decades when we would see meteorologically a long wave trough in the West with systems ejecting through the Plains in spring severe weather would occur just as it does during the present day. Now, of course, climate change is compounding the problem, causing precipitation amounts to be much higher. Record warmth and associated high moisture content south and east of the Mississippi River are feeding central U.S. storms.
Today’s main topic will focus on the water logged Plains and Midwest.
First, as noted below, much of the Southern Plains and Mississippi Valley as of this morning were under flash flood watches and river flood warnings:
The most significant flooding occurring as of today is in Davenport, Iowa:
In the short range, forecasting out the next couple of days, the Weather Prediction Center depicts this:
The Storm Prediction Center, as is usually the case during the spring, has been busy, as well. Today storms won’t be as widespread as was the case earlier during the week, but nevertheless watch for more tornadoes in Texas:
These severe weather notes were quite impressive:
Stu Ostro noted these hook echoes on Tuesday:
Want to see an upper air pattern that meteorologically has wet and severe weather written all over it for the nation’s mid-section? Here is the European Model valid for next Tuesday:
This upper air chart has been typical of what we saw in April. A “dirty, warm ridge” as noted by the red colors in the Southeast has brought early summer type warmth northward into the southern Great Lakes area and westward to the Mississippi River. The ridge is described meteorologically as dirty since it is not strong enough to suppress rainfall. Meanwhile strong, cold upper level lows have moved through the Southwest, spawning severe weather as they eject into the Plains. The northern branch of the jet (as noted next week by the blue dip in Minnesota) has been ushering Canadian fronts southward into the Plains, providing lift and convergence in the atmosphere to wring out precipitation. All three factors are combining to produce weather havoc for the Plains and Midwest.
I’ll keep my readers apprised of more potential life threatening weather pattern setups and news from the central U.S. as this and next week progress.
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Here is some of Thursday’s climate and weather news. Most importantly I have included news on Cyclone Fani, which will be the main topic for tomorrow’s post:
(As usual, this will be a fluid post in which more information gets added during the day as it crosses my radar, crediting all who have put it on-line. Items will be archived on this site for posterity. In most instances click on the pictures of each tweet to see each article.)
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Guy Walton- “The Climate Guy”