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Warm humid air floods northward to mark the beginning of summer. Thunderstorms often erupt across the States as weather disturbances and frontal systems collide with the humid air. The westward flow of Gulf air is blocked by the Rocky Mountain chain, and is re-directed into Oklahoma, Kansas, Missouri, and eastward to envelop the lower Great Lakes. The Appalachians block the flow to some extent, but the Atlantic Ocean, another moisture source, is ready to fill in when winds turn easterly.
I'm pretty sure the mountain ranges of sierras and rockies play just as much as a role, that is why east of the rockies it is green, where due west it is arid. If the rockies weren't there the gulf air would just keep going, I mean, it makes it all the way up into Canada, so, why wouldn't it push west... It pretty much pushes all the way to the front range then stops.
And the Pacific Ocean is one of the only reasons you DO have green areas by the coast that at least get seasonal rain... it's not like it is raining all year round in Florida either, it's dry and humidity drops in the winter.
So, were it not for mountain ranges, the climate in the West Coast would be determined more by the Atlantic Ocean than the Pacific?
So, were it not for mountain ranges, the climate in the West Coast would be determined more by the Atlantic Ocean than the Pacific?
It would be determined by both, along with the continental warm/dry air mass, at times the Gulf air mass would collide and create thunderstorms and humidity, just like it does east of the rockies... And I said Gulf, not Atlantic. How do you think Kansas and Nebraska get crazy hot and sticky in the summer?
There is actually a warm dry continental air mass sitting below CA in Mexico and AZ/NM often and that pushes in in the summer and keeps it dry and lacking humidity, while the pacific cool air pushes in in the winter and brings rain.
Even that reflects a regional bias. The relative lack of humidity on the West Coast has more to do with our closest ocean, rather than our being sheltered from most air emanating from the East.
The cool Pacific water is the single largest factor for low humidity for sure, the rockies help block gulf humidity, but dies off far before that. Once you hit west Texas the humidity is gone and there is no mountain block.
It would be determined by both, along with the continental warm/dry air mass, at times the Gulf air mass would collide and create thunderstorms and humidity, just like it does east of the rockies... And I said Gulf, not Atlantic. How do you think Kansas and Nebraska get crazy hot and sticky in the summer?
But let's not over-complicate this: the climate of the West Coast is determined more by the direction and temperature of it's own ocean current than by oceans thousands of miles away.
It would be determined by both, along with the continental warm/dry air mass, at times the Gulf air mass would collide and create thunderstorms and humidity, just like it does east of the rockies... And I said Gulf, not Atlantic. How do you think Kansas and Nebraska get crazy hot and sticky in the summer?
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Umm noo....What happesns in the Atlantic would still have very little bearing on what happens on the W. Coast if the all of the mountain ranges were to magically go away.
The jet stream moves from west to east (from the Pacific across the continental U.S. and Canada), not the other way around.
The weather on the west coast is dominated by the Pacific Ocean (which is colder), than the Atlantic, and the North American Cordillera (the series of mountain ranges stretching from the Yukon to California).
If the Rockies, Cascades, and Coastal Ranges did not exist, than colder air masses would be able to invade the coastal locations during the Winter Months, which would make cities like Seattle/Vancouver, and Portland much colder and snowier.
The only reason places in the lower midwest are getting super cold right now, is because the North American contient has no west to east mountain ranges protecting the lower 48 east of the Rockies.
During the summer months, places like Portland, and Seattle, and San Fran are cool because of the pacific ocean, and because of lattitude. Keep in mind that San Fran is about the same lattitude as DC, and Seattle is about the same lattitude as Eastern Canada. That plus the PACIFIC OCEAN which acts as a natural air conditioner.
The main reason that the inter mountain west is more arid, is because of the various mountain ranges that break up storm fronts moving in off the Pacific.
Yes, b/c we all know tropical weather patterns and hurricanes come from the west across the gulf. Take your argument up with NASA not me. A stronger tropical force like a hurricane can push all the way to New Mexico despite mountains/plateaus.
You are also wrong about the jet stream...there is more than one, there is not "the" jet stream, in the northern hemisphere in the summer there are easterly tropical jet streams as well as low level jet streams across the U.S.
This comes in the form of a maritime tropical air mass that basically goes WNW straight at Texas, but then curves around towards the plains and invades the air mass all the way up to Canada... this is b/c of Rocky Mountains. If not, at times, this air mass would keep pushing west depending on what else was there and where the mP from the northwest and cT from northern mexico were. Just as right now in winter, there is a cP air mass all the way to FL b/c nothing is in the way. So yes, undoubtedly the Western U.S. would be more humid at times if there were not a gigantic mountain range in the way.
Yes, b/c we all know tropical weather patterns and hurricanes come from the west across the gulf. Take your argument up with NASA not me. A stronger tropical force like a hurricane can push all the way to New Mexico despite mountains/plateaus.
The jet stream doesn't typically dip down into the tropics though. Don't most tropical storms in the US end up turning and heading west to east after they make landfall anyways?
The mountains do block big cold and warm humid air masses from invading the western US but even if they weren't there I don't think the climate would be like the east coast but resemble it somewhat more so. I just wonder how far west the Gulf could significantly influence weather as storms typically do move west to east.
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