This weather has been stupendous. Amazing. Incredible.
But I admit to being a little sceptical and a little worried.
As you can see here, in July and August we have had only 6 days below 25C.
But that doesn’t really tell the story. How can we have so much perfectly sunny weather over such a long period of time. My theory is it is down to a weak and nearly non existent Jetstream.
San Francisco State University has archived Jetstream analyses going back to 2010.
I have put together the animations for July/August 2010 and July/August 2013. This is a combination of satellite imagery and jetstream analysis (in yellow). You should notice that 2010 has a lot more yellow streaming over and around us, where as in 2013 it is broken up and infrequent.
What I believe it shows is the jetstream in 2010 (which was somewhat cooler but much more variable than 2013) featured a straighter, more consistently present jet stream. Whereas 2013 has featured a kinked, and almost non-existent jet stream. This is only one years comparison of course. So we should take this with a big grain of salt.
That’s my theory. I’m sticking with it for now. 🙂 We’ll see what August will hold. For now, it doesn’t look like it’s going to be much different. It sure would be nice to get a little rain.
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5 responses to “The sun is great… but 5 weeks?”
I would like sun at least six days out of seven with rain falling between the hours of midnight and four, gently, every other day. Not happening? Well, I could make like all the media weather types and moan and complain, or take responsibility for it, or not, or tell my viewers/listeners that “I” am keeping a cloud or two in MY forecast. Too much emotional content where none belongs! I like the maps and explanations here. Keep it up.
Dont worry the rain will come soon enough! Lets enjoy the sun!
Hope so Larry! 🙂
Good theory Chris, I’ll go with that! But WHY is the jet stream weak this summer, inquiring minds want to know?
That’s the question isn’t it? I have my theory on that that I’ve posted before 🙂 I’ll let it sit for now though.