Unusual Summer Weather May Be In The Cards for the Southeast

If you've followed my blog for a while, you've heard me talk about my friend and meteorologist Robert Gamble at WXSouth.com. Robert is a weather expert for southeast forecasting and has conducted numerous case studies about southeast weather events. I'll occasionally post some of Robert's comments and thoughts here, and his Facebook posting from today had me intrigued, so I wanted to pass it along. 

"If you thought the weather the last few months has been weird, you haven't seen anything yet. All the extended weather models show a very unusual jet stream flow coming up for Summer. For several days now all global models have been showing a massive ridge that will bake the western US, allowing the hot ridge in Alaska to link up with another ridge in the Rockies to form a very pronounced ridge out west. If this happens to that extent, and combined with a Bermuda Ridge in the Atlantic, this could cause a very deep trough in the East, and this would allow copious moisture to flow north from the Gulf of Mexico. Even without a Tropical Storm, which could actually happen, it would turn wet and stormy in a huge chunk of the Eastern US to start July. So it's a double edged sword, with severe drought and heatwaves and fires in the West, and possibly a super-wet pattern in the East and South. This Ridge/Trough Combo is unique for Summer Weather, only happening to this degree once in a few decades, so it will be interesting to see if the models pan out."

Quite a change from the last several years of hot and dry isn't it? Another aspect to consider is that with a large trough over the eastern half of the US, the door is open for tropical weather to slide in between the east and west coast high pressure areas. So not only do we have a better chance for the typical summer time showers, but also enhance the odds of a tropical system being funneled into the southeast at some point.  

There are some very contrasting differences between the western US versus the eastern half, as the west is in a major drought. With the brutal western ridge staying in place, the situation will only get worse, with wildfires becoming a major threat. 

For us in the short term, more chances for rain as the muggy tropical air remains in place over the southeast. It looks as though this will stay in place at least through the weekend before a cold front pushes south and possibly brings some slightly cooler temperatures for the start of next week. 

I highly recommend trying out WXSouth.com if you are really interested in weather around the southeast. It's a paid site but you can join for less than $10/month. If you join, you'll also get access to all of Robert's case studies as well as the most current southeast outlook. 

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