I am very sorry once again for not getting any articles or blog posts written, but from here on out, my school work should not give me any more problems, so expect nearly daily updates (hopefully). As for the weather, as many of you have noticed, temperatures have been nearly thirty degrees cooler than they were in March, a huge reversal from what it was. The bad news is that no significant warm ups are forecast until the end of this week into the weekend, when temperatures will finally begin to slide into the mid and upper 60's, possibly. Computer models consistently have been hinting at a stubborn blocking pattern over Eastern Canada and the Eastern United States (the same pattern we would have needed during the winter to have a cold and snowy winter!). That has been the case for quite a bit of early April and even into mid-April, but I highly doubt that the trough that is forecast over Eastern Canada will be as deep or as strong as the computer models are currently handling it, especially given the pattern building out West. Also, the GFS has a known bias for being too weak with the trough/ridge pattern, especially in such a highly variable pattern such as this. It keeps on trying to break down the ridge in the west much quicker than what other models are hinting at. It still has the possibility of being correct, but with the strength of the longwave trough pushing into the ridge, I would expect it to keep its strength while moving eastward. There is one caveat to this eastward movement. The storm that is currently impacting the East as we speak, has become incredibly strong (the reason for the breezy conditions today.). When such a storm system amplifies considerably in a relatively unstable environment such as over the ocean, it tends to strengthen rapidly. When it strengthens rapidly, it causes the upper level trough to deepen at the same time. This has caused a rather weak upper level wave to develop into a large and strong upper level low, that is about to close off. This trough will slowly drift northward into eastern Canada. As the trough stays put in Canada, it will send pieces of energy (shortwave troughs and vorticity lobes) around its periphery. One of the stronger "pieces of energy" will move southward around the base of that trough as the ridge builds into the central plains. This "piece of energy", with its associated height falls, will cause a cold front to descend from Canada. (By the way, this cold front should affect the area by Wednesday Night and Thursday). There is much disagreement on whether a wave from the West will interact with this shortwave to cause a much stronger storm system, but for the time being, it will produce little in the way of violent weather, but a small chance for showers or a rumble of thunder as the front passes through. After this wave moves through, in my thinking, the upper level flow will deamplifiy considerably as the eastern Canadian trough moves into the North Atlantic. At the same time, a strong trough will descend into the West, causing reamplification of the upper level flow pattern especially in the last day or so of April (by the 30th or May 1st). When this happens, a ridge will build into the Central plains, which COULD be the precursor to a significant warm-up by the beginning of May. This is what the climatic variables are showing but in such a wild pattern as this, the climate variables may not be completely correct. As for our temperatures, they will range from near normal to below normal over the next several days, with a gradual warm-up by the weekend.
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