Maine weather thread (Gray, Hope, Strong: driveway, grocery, winter)

[Cambium]

Originally Posted by DauntlessDan

. This is going to end up being a record winter.

Technically and meteorologically winter has been over for 5 weeks now.

While snow season is July to June, winter is Dec-Jan-Feb and almost all areas of Northeast had a historic winter. Now we're looking at a very cold record breaking spring for parts of New England.

If you want to use an extended or specific period... Yeah.. There's still some impressive numbers. Like coldest start to the year Jan 1 to April 6.

Or specific data like number of days staying below freezing. 2nd most for Bangor since start of the year! In other words, only 1978 had more days staying below freezing in the last 90 yrs! 2015 with 62 days. 1978 with 65

[IHeartMaine]

This all seems due to a messed up Jet Stream.....remember when the Jet Stream was sort of straight and predictable? Now it looks like an extreme roller coaster at Six Flags. And if you are in its path when it dips down from Canada like Maine has been recently.......look out!

[Cambium]

Originally Posted by IHeartMaine

This all seems due to a messed up Jet Stream.....remember when the Jet Stream was sort of straight and predictable? Now it looks like an extreme roller coaster at Six Flags. And if you are in its path when it dips down from Canada like Maine has been recently.......look out!

Jet stream straight and predictable? How long have you been a meteorologist that you remember the Jet stream being straight and predictable?

The Jet has ALWAYS been wavy and more so in the winter time. (Called amplified)

The easiest thing to do is look at Top 10 coldest or warmest numbers for any day, any month, any year. That will help understand those numbers happened because of how the Jet was configured. And we all know multiple random years come up both daily, monthly and yearly. Its always happened.

When the Polar Vortex is in central or Eastern Canada look out Northeast U.S. that's happened in the past as well but not every year.

Timing is a crucial thing with weather. Had that PV not set up in southern Canada in January we wouldn't have been talking about historic colds and snows.

[IHeartMaine]

Jet Stream seems more North/South than West/East these days (even in the summer). But I am a weather rube.....so pardon my ignorance.

[Cambium]

Originally Posted by IHeartMaine

Jet Stream seems more North/South than West/East these days (even in the summer). But I am a weather rube.....so pardon my ignorance.

No problem.. I been following weather since the 1970s and studying it for decades but anyone can simply look at charts and data and see for themselves there's always been a North/South flow that's happened. Some longer than others with shorter breaks, other times flip flopping with the west. Sometimes the SouthEast ridge disturbs the flow. There's a lot of configurations.

Whats cool is knowing that in the warm months the Jet isn't usually amplified, its more flat.. like this week is. That's because it weakens and retreats north into Canada. BUT, like you mentioned, it happens in the summer too where we get the troughs/ridges. Sometimes the West gets it, lately the East has like last year.

Weather is like a poker game... you need more than 1 card to make things happen. Like a marriage but with multiple people. lol There are multiple reasons why things happen at the surface or above our heads.

As far as seeing the data.. let me know if you guys need links, I have tons. Here's one which gets very technical. Or here's a random pick of the weather map from January 24, 2003, you can see the Wavy Jet.

[Cambium]

Ha, I was curious after randomly clicking on that Jan 24, 2003 link I posted above, I checked some temps out from that day. Single digits down south, sub zero in New England, struggling past teens and 20s during the day. Cold day because of that Dipping Jet stream and Upper Low over the area.

You can change the date within the link itself to see how other days look.

Find an extreme if you want to see how it looked on the map. I think it only goes back to a certain timeframe though.

[DauntlessDan]

Yes Cambium (are you really a meteorologist?) I know a lot depends on the jet stream. That's why I watch it like a hawk this time of year. I can remember living in the NEK of Vermont and waiting for the jet stream to lift and can't wait for it to actually do so now. It acts like a fence, doesn't it? Allowing cold air masses to come out of the north (when it is south of us) and blocking warm air masses coming from the south. Plus you get the occasional stalled-out high that blocks things once in awhile. Good news. Just heard on the forecast that this is more than likely the last week of below normal temperatures. I hope they're right. I am so sick of winter and this is winter to me. Right now it is snowing outside. Supposed to be up in the 50s this Saturday.

[Northern Maine Land Man]

I watch "The Farm Report" at 5 AM most Sunday mornings on Channel 7 out of Bangor. They have a 90 day forecast which is quite good. They did forecast our winter in early January. The Russians refer to the "polar dome". Our NWS calls it the "Arctic vortex" because it sounds more ominous.

[Cambium]

Originally Posted by DauntlessDan

Yes Cambium (are you really a meteorologist?) I know a lot depends on the jet stream. That's why I watch it like a hawk this time of year. I can remember living in the NEK of Vermont and waiting for the jet stream to lift and can't wait for it to actually do so now. It acts like a fence, doesn't it? Allowing cold air masses to come out of the north (when it is south of us) and blocking warm air masses coming from the south. Plus you get the occasional stalled-out high that blocks things once in awhile. Good news. Just heard on the forecast that this is more than likely the last week of below normal temperatures. I hope they're right. I am so sick of winter and this is winter to me. Right now it is snowing outside. Supposed to be up in the 50s this Saturday.

I work for a meteorologist now but its not my full time job. Just a passion and a hobby.

Check out Jet Stream in the West bringing unusually cold Spring storm with significant snows..

Good news for drought stricken CA - rainy season off to healthy start


Yes.. when the Jet Stream is south of us, it allows NW airflow from Canada to come down. Hard to explain it all in 1 post. The reason for this past winter and now early Spring is because there was the Poar Vortex in Southern Canada. That was forcing the atmosphere to push down in the East which allowed fresh Cold air to come down constantly.

This Vortex was just spinning and spinning in the upper levels and breaking off pieces of frigid air that mixed down to surface. Add the fact that the Great Lakes were frozen for near record time and a Frozen over Hudson Bay in Canada and the air was crisp and fresh with each High Pressure coming down.

Add a sub tropical Jet interaction and there's the moistures and snows we got.

If the Sub Tropical Jet wasn't active, we would of just been Cold and Dry. It's truly fascinating watching the weather and the senarios. (Its always different) because you get to see how everything works with one another.

[DauntlessDan]

Here it is April 7th and it looks like February outside. We had a snowfall last night that covered everything here. The weatherman says that this SHOULD be the last significant one of the season. Let's hope or we won't have spring. We will just jump from winter to summer. (I don't care what the calendar says, if it is like this, with these temps and precip., it is winter!!).