Please register to participate in our discussions with 2 million other members - it's free and quick! Some forums can only be seen by registered members. After you create your account, you'll be able to customize options and access all our 15,000 new posts/day with fewer ads.
Location: Live:Downtown Phoenix, AZ/Work:Greater Los Angeles, CA
27,590 posts, read 14,722,824 times
Reputation: 9169
Advertisements
Quote:
Originally Posted by tom77falcons
A stuck ridge over the eastern US in winter is a much more rare event than a stuck ridge out west in winter. Topography is the reason plain and simple. The natural default position for ridges and troughs in winter in the US is ridge west (high elevation terrain) and trough east. That is clearly the typical pattern for every single January. Sometimes a ridge happens in the SE, or E, but it is not the default and not typical.
If a ridge in the East was as common in the West, our avg Jan high wouldn't be 40F given our latitude. Pretty much no where on the planet except eastern Asia is as cold in winter as we are. The ridge in Central Asia in winter makes them warmer than we are.
I think sea temperature has a big part to play in that. The Atlantic off the New Jersey coast has a January water temp in the 40°F range, while at the same latitude in Northern California, the Pacific has a sea surface temp in the low to mid 50's F
oh, he's changed his twitter title. I still need to check his new site; should be good. Has anyone else checked it? I assumed chicagogeorge and cambium have.
I think sea temperature has a big part to play in that. The Atlantic off the New Jersey coast has a January water temp in the 40°F range, while at the same latitude in Northern California, the Pacific has a sea surface temp in the low to mid 50's F
It's like the Chicken and the Egg game. Are the coastal Pacific waters warmer because of the ridges or are the waters warmer even without the ridges? Which came first? lol
The west coast most of the time has a flow from the warm Pacific but there is no East to West flow for the Atlantic coast.. Only when there's a HP or Cyclone off the East coast. So it's not like the waters are having an affect in the East. Only for immediate shorelines.
Speaking of flows........ Upper Level controls the surface pattern so lets take a look at whats going on right now today...
Huge Jet stream dip over the Pacific, hot ridge in the west , dip in the mid west and a warm East coast today because the cold front and trough hasn't swung in yet. Little ridging up to Eastern Quebec.
Arrows indicate the winds at 18,000'. 5000' generally the same as well.
Do you have any idea just how warm the Western US has been for decades now? They didn't get the 80's cold the East did, and they still have had more months above average than the East for the last decades.
I don't think outside of a 75 mile area around my house. Never study the weather any place outside of my area. No one can touch me on my local weather. But don't ask me what the weather is doing in NY as i won't know.
I do know due to world wide weather change than Cali will never see the rains come back in my lifetime and that the fires will only get much worse out west over time...
Do you have any idea just how warm the Western US has been for decades now? They didn't get the 80's cold the East did, and they still have had more months above average than the East for the last decades.
The 50s-70s were much cooler out west compared with the east and the west has been warmer 80s-10s. Long term pattern flip back to cooler west/ warmer east could have begun last winter.
I don't remember any super freezes in my area in the 70's other than we got snow on Jan 19th 1977 in Tampa and the temp was only around 26. This was just before i got into weather.
Please register to post and access all features of our very popular forum. It is free and quick. Over $68,000 in prizes has already been given out to active posters on our forum. Additional giveaways are planned.
Detailed information about all U.S. cities, counties, and zip codes on our site: City-data.com.
Please register to participate in our discussions with 2 million other members - it's free and quick! Some forums can only be seen by registered members. After you create your account, you'll be able to customize options and access all our 15,000 new posts/day with fewer ads.
