Weather Update
December 1, 2012
Beware the MJO! It will flood California with a “Pineapple Express” and leave most of the Midwest high and dry.
The MJO, Madden Julian Oscillation, is a harmless looking little pool of wind and water drifting in the Tropical Pacific. It doesn’t look like anything special. But look out! It can shape hurricanes and droughts, floods and blizzards.
Currently California is being blasted by storm after storm. A powerful jet stream is carrying the tropical moisture from Hawaii to the West Coast, thus... more
November 30, 2012
When most people think of the North Pole, they think of Santa Claus and his workshop of jolly elves.
Other folks, more paranoid, think of the Mayan calendar, and the warnings that the magnetic poles will flip and annihilate life on Earth. Few think of the real fact that last year the shifting magnetic north pole closed down an airport in Florida!
The North Magnetic Pole is shifting from Canada to Russia. Source: NASA
You see, while the actual North Pole, the axis that the Earth spins, is very... more
November 5, 2012
Did you know that originally weather services said that Hurricane Sandy would die off when it left the Caribbean Sea?
A pattern called the “Greenland High” was creating winds that would shear off the top of the storm. Instead, the extraordinarily hot waters of the Atlantic kept Sandy alive and the shearing winds pushed Sandy straight into New Jersey.
Click to enlarge image.
The same winds that steered Sandy into the East Coast will be helping to shape the weather in early winter. Source: NOAA... more
October 14, 2012
It’s official – the Earth has schizophrenia! The North Pole’s Arctic ice pack reached record lows.
Meanwhile the South Pole’s Antarctic ice pact reached record highs.
Huh?
Click to expand image.
It’s official. This September 16, the Arctic ice shrank to the lowest level since record keeping began in 1979. Source: National Snow and Ice Data Center (NSIDC)
While you wait impatiently for winter, hoping for a cooler winter than last year, it’s fun to think about where it gets really cold – the... more
September 21, 2012
The US and Canada are in for a real battle this autumn.
Think of it as a battle of the heavyweights. In the north corner of the ring, it’s the Arctic Oscillation. Its punishing blows can knock you out cold. In the west corner lurks the El Niño. Don’t let the name, which means “little boy”, fool you. He can come roaring out with a cold punch to the South and hot and heavy in the North.
The El Niño is weak but may pack a warm punch later. SOURCE: NASA Earth Observatory
Oh, and just to make the... more
September 11, 2012
Are you already tired of the Atlantic hurricane season?
Now that we have some El Niño conditions in the Tropical Pacific, aren’t things supposed to quiet down?
Sorry, thanks to the troublemaker of the oceans, the Madden Julian Oscillation or MJOs, we still are going to see more storms.
The oceans are full of climate patterns. Usually the giant El Niño shapes the weathers in the tropics.
However, when the El Niños are very new and weak, like now, other patterns can dominate.
That’s all the MJOs... more
August 26, 2012
The Bermuda High—it is as mysterious as the Bermuda Triangle.
In summer, it can steer tropical heat into the eastern and southern US. During the Atlantic Hurricane Season, it determines whether a tropical storm visits a Florida political convention or goes for the gumbo near New Orleans. It shapes American weather and, unfortunately, it can be very unpredictable.
Look at the blank area in the satellite picture of the stormy Atlantic. That’s the Bermuda High. It is an area of high atmospheric... more
August 5, 2012
I promised several readers last week that I would write about winter.
There is nothing like a heat wave to make you dream of crisp cool winter days and quiet drifts of snow. (Ok, Californians, I know you dream of 72˚ weather and enough rain that you don’t have to water the still blossoming garden.)
If, as most climate experts expect, we have an El Niño, winter might be a bit weird.
Click to expand. Satellite pictures show how El Niños develop. SOURCE: NOAA.
Basically, an El Niño (Spanish for “... more
July 29, 2012
Today’s blog will be short and sweet. Do you want cooler temperatures and more rain? It may be coming.
The models at the National Center for Environmental Prediction forecast an El Niño will arrive next month. When one looks at the different agencies around the world, the ones with the models that have been most accurate show an El Niño starting in August.
When the Tropical Pacific heats up and becomes an El Niño, it changes weather around the world. Source: NASA
What does this mean?
Globally... more
July 9, 2012
What happens when you take North America and simmer it in hot water? You produce a record-breaking heat wave! In late June and early July, we broke over 5,000 hot temperature records.
Click to expand map.
For the last 30 days, US temperatures have been much hotter than usual. (The map is in ˚C, with each degree being 1.8˚F) Source −NOAA
That is what has happened this year. The Gulf Stream and other tropical Atlantic currents have been unusually strong and fast this year. This carried hot... more
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Mike Steinberg is Senior Vice President for Special Initiatives at AccuWeather Inc in State College, Pennsylvania. He is also a member of the National Weather Association and the Canadian Meteorological and Oceanographic Society.
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