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We will be getting some rain later this afternoon and into tonight...
But drought conditions are expanding throughout the Midwest and most likely will have implications on this summer's temperature (unless something changes over the next 5 weeks).
It's going to be we across the South... California is going to get some much needed rain over the next 45 days too (response to El Nino conditions?)
Drought: Drought conditions spread over the Upper Midwest and intensified over the West during March. Areas on the Gulf Coast and in the Tennessee Valley improved. March ended with 36.84 percent of the contiguous United States in moderate drought or worse, compared with 32.83 percent at the end of February. Severe drought increased from 16.42 to 18.60 percent, extreme drought increased from 8.82 to 8.97 percent and exceptional drought increased from 3.30 to 3.34 percent of the area. March ended with 78 million people being impacted by drought compared to 76.1 million at the end of February.
Outlook: Persistence and intensification of drought during April is expected. Forecasters anticipate further development of drought in South Dakota and Nebraska, while some improvements are likely over the Gulf Coast and east Texas.
Last edited by chicagogeorge; 04-19-2015 at 07:47 AM..
We will be getting some rain later this afternoon and into tonight...
But drought conditions are expanding throughout the Midwest and most likely will have implications on this summer's temperature (unless something changes over the next 5 weeks).
It's going to be we across the South... California is going to get some much needed rain over the next 45 days too (response to El Nino conditions?)
Good news here, although I'd like to see that blue boundary shifted a bit further north.
Let's keep the rains coming - drought is even worse than heat, and having both is my worse nightmare of all. I'm bummed about the Midwest - it's not gonna be a fun summer for them.
Last edited by NorthStarDelight; 04-19-2015 at 08:32 AM..
Pattern is still evolving. I particularly don't like drought because it really hurts farmers, but for my region drought conditions that are now evolving in the Plains, usually means that a high pressure dome will build and either engulf Chicagoland giving us hot conditions, or we will be on the edge of it, in a ring of fire pattern where we would get warm muggy conditions and lots of t-storms
Pattern is still evolving. I particularly don't like drought because it really hurts farmers, but for my region drought conditions that are now evolving in the Plains, usually means that a high pressure dome will build and either engulf Chicagoland giving us hot conditions, or we will be on the edge of it, in a ring of fire pattern where we would get warm muggy conditions and lots of t-storms
Well, let's hope that pattern "evolves" in a different direction.
If I had god-like powers over the weather, I'd make sure there was zero color on that drought map, from coast to coast. I'd also make Australia a much wetter continent, so it could become the next United States. If I could design a planet of my own, you can bet it'd not have any deserts whatsoever...lol.
With that man's cold bias, I interpret that as a massive heat wave, with temps rocketing into the 90's and staying there. What a bummer.
Eh, Atlanta averages 80F for highs in May so even if May is somewhat warmer than average you have plenty of sub-90F days left. The clock is ticking, though, to the extent that it would take a big-time cold pattern to provide much of anything in the way of truly cool weather for your area.
Quote:
Originally Posted by NorthStarDelight
Good news here, although I'd like to see that blue boundary shifted a bit further north.
Let's keep the rains coming - drought is even worse than heat, and having both is my worse nightmare of all. I'm bummed about the Midwest - it's not gonna be a fun summer for them.
I like dry heat more than humid heat, and drought tends to produce dry heat more than a wet pattern; then again, the norm in the South is for drought to be accompanied by high dew points anyway .
Quote:
Originally Posted by NorthStarDelight
Well, let's hope that pattern "evolves" in a different direction.
If I had god-like powers over the weather, I'd make sure there was zero color on that drought map, from coast to coast. I'd also make Australia a much wetter continent, so it could become the next United States. If I could design a planet of my own, you can bet it'd not have any deserts whatsoever...lol.
If I had god-like powers the simplest thing to do for the Southeast would be to replicate the Ethiopian Highlands in that region - the Roof of Africa is 800 miles wide and 600 miles long, which would take care of most of the Southeast. Now, this is geographic powers rather than meteorological, but seriously, mountains offer the best bang for the buck, not only improving the climate but also improving and diversifying the landscape, vegetation, and views; in your region, just look at the difference between the climates of Atlanta (1000 ft), Boone (3300 ft), and Mount Le Conte (6500 ft). Imagine if in the South there were more areas like Boone or Le Conte than like Atlanta; Highland County, Virginia offers the best model for what this alternate South would be like.
Even Atlanta itself has a noticeably better climate than nearby Augusta, which is just 900 feet lower. In my alternate South the biggest mountains would be much larger and higher than 6500 feet; imagine the climates that would be possible at 10000 feet. My personal preference would be for 15000-20000 feet or more, so to have the kind of terrain seen in Denali, the Tian Shan, and the Himalayas, i.e. preferably really steep, rugged, and high. Such terrain is just different from the Rockies or Appalachians.
Quote:
Originally Posted by The Weather Guy
As I thought, they backed off and it now shows only 85F.
It really amazes me how Americans can complain about brutal relentless winters when it's no trouble at all for half of their country to push 90F in the middle of spring. It seems to me that the U.S. in general is much closer to having brutal relentless summers than brutal relentless winters - the vast majority of it is hot oftentimes for half the year. That's like half of America easily approaching 10F in mid October*, which as we all know pretty much never happens even at night, much less in the daytime. Interestingly, most of Alaska fits that description.
*Summery appears to start around 70F for highs, seeing as that's what the coolest places that have summery scenes (excluding the tropical pictures) average in summer; 90F is 20F warmer than that. Wintry scenes obviously start around 30F, and 20F cooler than that is 10F.
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