Archives
Categories
WeatherGuys Links
Monthly Archives: May 2024
Why is Memorial Day weekend weather highly variable?
Memorial Day weekend weather can be absolutely glorious in the state of Wisconsin. But it can be rainy and cold as well. Perhaps no other major holiday suffers such a Jekyll and Hyde split, and there are really good scientific reasons that underlie this duality.
By the end of May, the Northern Hemisphere is just about completely over the prior winter and the cold air that characterized it is almost completely left to very high latitudes, where the longer days act quickly to erode what is left even near the North Pole. The process of “shedding” the cold air from winter sometimes involves the excursion southward of regional cold air vortices in the mid-troposphere, which meteorologists refer to as “cut off” low pressure systems. Continue reading
Category: Climate, Meteorology, Seasons
Comments Off on Why is Memorial Day weekend weather highly variable?
Comments Off on Why is Memorial Day weekend weather highly variable?
Has this year’s tornado activity been abnormal?
Preliminary reports from the Storm Prediction Center tally higher than the historical averages though May 2024. Continue reading
Category: Climate, Meteorology, Severe Weather
Comments Off on Has this year’s tornado activity been abnormal?
Comments Off on Has this year’s tornado activity been abnormal?
Do tornadoes occur over all parts of Earth?
The only continent that has not recorded a tornado is Antarctica. Otherwise, tornadoes can happen in just about any location.
North America, and specifically the United States, accounts for more than 75% of the world’s reported tornadoes. Other tornado-prone areas around the globe include western Canada, Argentina, the western Mediterranean, Japan, Bangladesh, Australia, New Zealand and South Africa. Continue reading
Category: Meteorology, Phenomena, Severe Weather
Comments Off on Do tornadoes occur over all parts of Earth?
Comments Off on Do tornadoes occur over all parts of Earth?
Why is May 6 such a special day in weather science history?
Immediately after World War II, it became fashionable to imagine technologies that might allow human beings to control the weather. In fact, one goal advanced by influential scientists was actually to explode nuclear bombs in the right locations and in the right quantity so as to alter the weather in favorable ways.
Such an enterprise would require accurate forecasts of the weather thought possible by using the brand new computer technology to make the millions of requisite calculations. Continue reading
Category: History, Meteorology
Comments Off on Why is May 6 such a special day in weather science history?
Comments Off on Why is May 6 such a special day in weather science history?
