Wednesday, August 3, 2011

Pattern change coming?

After baking in the humidity during the month of July, it looks as if there is a potential pattern change coming as soon as this weekend.  Much of July can be characterized as hot and humid as a ridge of high pressure was basically centered in the middle of the country. 

The jet stream will turn zonal (meaning the winds will run from west to east) starting this weekend but then shift to the northwest as an area of low pressure sits near Hudson Bay and high pressure sits off the coast of Greenland.  This will act as a block of some sorts and it looks like it may keep this 'cooler' air in place over the Midwest into next week and possibly beyond.  Both the 6-10 and 8-14 day outlooks from the Climate Prediction Center have us in the below average category. 

As far as precipitation, the northwest flow will keep little disturbances moving down the Plains and eventually into the Great Lakes every other day.  This will keep the rain/storm chance with us as these little mini  cool fronts come through.  Because of that there is an above average chance of precipitation during this time.

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