|
|
Enron Mail |
Weather Headlines Wednesday November 21, 2001 *** Battle develops between tropical ridge in the Atlantic and Arctic air flooding Canada. The Atlantic ridge will prevail? for now.*** A series of weather systems will move into the West Coast and head East through the Thanksgiving holiday weekend. While the pattern will be more active than recent weeks, no one big storm is likely to bring travel problems on a large scale. In addition, there is little additional cold air available to spin up a Winter Storm, so most precip will be in the form of light to moderate rain. Exceptions to this will be the mountains of the West where ski resort snows will fall. Also, the far Northern reaches of the U.S. could see some light snows. Temperature departures are expected to go largely above normal again with the highest numbers in the North, though not to the degree of earlier in the month. Negative numbers though not significant are confined to the West where storms come in off the ocean and in the Southeast where this time of year is not cold anyway. Models are going wild with a winter storm early in the 6-10 day period. I suspect surface pressures are a little overdone given the upper level flow. However, the Gulf will be open and some significant moisture and wind are possible. The storm track will be well North which confines snow to the Northern U.S. Significant winter weather though from Wyoming to Minnesota is possible. The large scale pattern ending November will be for a trough to sit in the Interior West while a strong ridge exists over the Southeast. There is still plenty of arctic air available in Canada, but with the jet stream in a broad West to SW flow, no means of delivery appear available until at least December 1'st. In a general sense, I look for temperatures to be below normal in the West with above normal in the South and East. The North is somewhat a question mark being closer to the arctic air and could go either way. I'll lean to normal for now. For the period Wednesday November 21 through Sunday November 25, expect the following temperature trends: Average 1 to 3-degrees below normal: Gulf Coast, Southeast, Mid-Atlantic, Pacific NW? Average 1 to 3-degrees above normal: Ohio and Mississippi Valleys, Great Lakes, Southern Plains, California, Desert SW? Average 4 to 6-degrees above normal: Rockies, Intermountain West, Central Plains? Average 7 to 10-degrees above normal: Northern Plains? Andy Weingarten, Meteorologist APB Energy / True Quote
|