WEATHER MADE CLEAR FOR ALL TO HEAR

"But seeing they could not See; hearing they could not Hear"
“The views expressed herein are those of the author and do not necessarily represent those of the National Weather Service or affiliate/related organizations. Please consult .gov sites for official information”

"From its chamber comes the whirlwind, and cold from the scattering winds." - Job 37:9.

"The wind blows to the south and turns to the north; round and round it goes, ever returning on its course".

Wednesday, October 6, 2010

A Strange case of Dr. Jekyll and Mr. Hyde

(Images: There are 2 images included today; Facebook viewers will need to open this post to view in entirety).
 
Shown: Bi-polar Jekyll and Hyde twin conditions shown in today's mid-level(700mb) presentation of the U.S. The polar opposite is shown in roughly 4 days in the second image when by this time each stormy low level pressure system is replaced with high pressure, leading to the U.S. Synopsis.
 
As can be seen in the first image, an "Omega Block" pattern is at perfect peak performance this morning. "Jekyll" is over the Northeast U.S. and being his sedate self: mostly cool, cloudy, and somewhat wet. A sop. On the other hand, Mr. Hyde is up to devilish no goodness over the Desert Southwest region.  In between these two characters is high pressure over the mid-section of the U.S. Note this as this area will be discussed again later.
 
The dynamic duo began the adventure over the weekend with some severe warnings in S.E. California and wet, cold slop over the Great Lakes into Pennsylvania (of many locales), and since that time Hyde has continued to be nothing less than the Devil's Advocate in Arizona, especially since near noon time yesterday up to the time of this writing. Numerous severe level hail and wind reports have been driving the teletype in full gear, with a plethora of sub-severe level yet exciting weather conditions jamming the lines. Two confirmed tornadoes already, with warnings going out as I type. The weather services in Phoenix and Flagstaff are quite busy. Might add, there has been some tornado reports with significant damage as well. As Flagstaff puts it: "IT CONTINUED TO BE A VERY ACTIVE MORNING WITH NUMEROUS SEVERE/TORNADO PRODUCING THUNDERSTORMS. A CONTINUATION OF THIS ACTIVITY IS EXPECTED THROUGH THE DAY AS A STRONG LOW SPINS OVER CALIFORNIA." North/Central portions of Arizona and portion South/Central Utah are in a Tornado Watch until 8PM EDT.
 
Second Image: But there is a good side to everything as well as a bad one. Jekyll will run out of potion. By the end of the weekend instead of Jekyll and Hyde (the old toy "Clackers" comes to mind if your old enough to know they even existed, but were banned due to their propensity to apply personal injury to the 7-8 year old users)...we will be looking at Pom-Poms in the NE and SW U.S. High. Sort of like going from hard to soft porn...a pleasant break from the rough and tumble. Meanwhile, right where we have the High Pressure over the mid-section mentioned above, we will find a trough cutting through the mid-section of the U.S. At time, doesn't look like there will be much impact directly associated with this, but honestly have not delved deeply into this fairly fast moving system. It will head toward the N.E. states in Jekyll's wake, while the Desert S.W. remains sedated, living up to its good old self once again -- dry.
 
LOCALLY/TODAY: Wow, cold this morning in Crestview at 41F and Tallahassee at 45F! But that's long gone, in fact those temperatures rose almost 15 degrees in the first 3 hours of day light. Locally, breezy N-NNE winds and a few clouds. Cool with a high in the low 80s. Tonight, like last night. Much the same through the end of the work week with winds letting up noticeably by later in the day Thursday and a little warmer, but not by much. SE Florida could have the winds until Friday though.
 
WEEKEND: Little change, but even nicer. Winds die down significantly, and what wind there be will exist will be NE-E. Slight chance of a very light rain shower, but really and for the most part, negligible. Will watch to see if more moisture advects toward the coast to generate showers, but it appears the low/mid level winds won't be strong enough to do the trick.
 
LATER TUESDAY-WEDNESDAY: A front approaches as winds become more southerly to perhaps southwesterly for a brief time, but of light strength. The front might go through dry though (no rain)...but it's still too soon to say for sure. Gonna have to monitor the trends as we go through the weekend.
 
TROPICS: I think we'll be seeing Tropical Storm Otto if not by early evening then by tomorrow morning. The low pressure system is located just north of Puerto Rico and is currently tangled up in a meteorological mess with an upper level low near by, as well as with the low pressure trough off the U.S. East Coast. As such, it's categorized as a sub-tropical depression. Whatever. But everything is pointing toward this low probably going from a 'subtropical low' to a flat out Tropical Storm at whatever point the Hurricane Center opts to flip the switch. Exactly how long the system remains a tropical entity varies per model runs, but it won't be too long. Perhaps only 2 days, maybe 4. Regardless, it'll be history. Although the eventual impacts to Great Britain are intriguing.
 
Elsewhere, Otto (I'll call it that for simplistic sake and since it doesn't matter either way) might have a little sister Paula. Are you seeing the trend that I am? Things are happening in pairs. Named or not named, it appears likely another 'system of sorts' will form within the same broad, scheme of things, trough that 'yet to be named Otto' forms in. Only at the extreme tail end which is somewhat intermingled with the area of low pressure that's been over the Caribbean for quite some time now. This system is up for grabs for now, considering that other than model hints, there's nothing to prove its eventual birth...but the Caribbean still looks a little pregnant.
 
To paint an entertaining picture though and to emphasize how nuts things get when foreseeing something beyond the horizon, last night's 00Z GFS run turned this area into a full blown hurricane and took it north across West Cuba...heading straight for Florida. But fear not, the 06z run came out and simply took this area on a free tour through the Western Caribbean across the Yucatan and back to it's origins...and at perhaps Depression status it is picked up by a trough off the U.S. East Coast to follow a path similar to "Otto". The 12Z shows similar, but lets the system die in place, never being named. Almost likes the tropics has an abortion (all seriousness aside,pulleez). We'll see.

No comments: