UNSETTLED PATTERN WIDELY VARIABLE WEATHER CONTINUES ONWARD

UNSETTLED PATTERN WIDELY VARIABLE WEATHER CONTINUES ONWARD – Good morning everyone. We have a hot day unfolding here today, but indicative of this pattern we are stuck in, tomorrow is a new and different day weather-wise. These fluctuations look to continue through the next couple of weeks and I break it down for you below and why.

First and foremost, fog has burned off and we are enjoying bright sunshine in most areas. Light NW winds are calming down and south switch to the SSE by late afternoon. The early calm winds will help propel us to the 85-90 range and it’ll be a touch more humid than previously thought due to that early fog we burned off.

Tomorrow, the fog returns as does the east wind and cooler weather. We will be rain-free with some afternoon sun, highs in the mid to upper 70’s.

The Why

On Thursday, clouds return as well as the chance of showers. Easterly winds continue and highs will be in the upper 60’s to low 70’s. Now, why is this continuing to happen? Basically and with or without Alberto, high pressure is setting up in the “wrong” spot; giving us a lack of consistent warm days, followed by a little rain, then a cool day, before we warm up again.

What’s happening is, this reoccurring high pressure drifts west to east and back again, or dies out and reforms in the same area. The southwesterly formation pumps tropical moisture in from the deep Caribbean instead of a Bermuda high with air from Florida and the Bahamas. This helps form a virtual trough near or east of the Mississippi Valley, sending heavy rain their way and constant clouds/moisture our way.

With high pressure so far south and west, this also changes the pattern of where our northerly systems go and how they form. Instead of sharp air masses this time of year (which help create severe weather), we are getting weaker highs and less differences in air masses up here humidity-wise. Cold fronts are sliding in from our north, or dropping in from the northeast, then becoming stationary. Aside from a couple of weeks ago, we are being spared the threat of severe weather, but we are paying it back in other realms.

Typically, our hotter days are coming from the sinking air of an approaching, weak high; then our clouds and cooler/showery days are coming from the same high slipping to our southeast and fronts getting hung up over the area. This constant back and forth is giving us a wide range of weather – from sunny and hot days like today, to cool and raw two days later.

Unfortunately there seems to be no let-up and the reoccurring high doesn’t look to break until possibly mid-June. Anything can happen, but at this point it doesn’t want to let go for a while. What this means for us is the continuation of wide ranges in our weather, sometimes day to day, and it wouldn’t surprise me if another Alberto-like system sneaks its way into the Gulf or Southeast.

For Friday and Saturday, we look mild again after a cool Thursday, with highs 75-80 and that constant chance of scattered showers. Sunday and Monday we’re back into the upper 60’s to low 70’s, and the band marches on as we get into our approaching weeks to summer.