As noted in my previous blog, the meteorology of much of the summer has been dominated by high pressure offshore, resulting in a warmer and drier-than-normal period.
But this week it all changed, with low pressure---also called troughing-- gaining the upper hand.
Consider the infrared satellite image earlier this morning (below). A low center was positioned over southwest Washington, with a plume of moisture circulating around.
That moisture originated in the famous Southwest (or North American) monsoon. The same monsoon that brought heavy rain and a dust storm to the Phoenix area.
But as this low moves out today, ANOTHER low is ready to move in! The water vapor satellite imagery this morning shows the low lurking offshore. A larger low.
A sequence of forecast upper-level (500 hPa, about 18,000 ft) weather maps provides the "lowdown" on the situation.
Tomorrow morning at 5 AM, the low is off the southern Oregon Coast.
With a low offshore, the winds will be very modest over the region.
NWS Spokane says this low will retrograde, which will allow Eastern Washington to warm back to high 90s low 100s, here the Okanogan Valley, weather.com shows mid toupper 90s Sarirday om and low 100s for 4 days. Summee os not over. Yuck.
ReplyDeleteWould also love some more fall-like weather, but at least, according to this analysis, we aren't in store for any events like the offshore winds that caused the Labor Day fires in 2020.
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