Good Evening Everybody! I hope you all are enjoying the weather because next week is going to be WET. Today’s cover photo was provided by viewer Ashley Romero of Iron County. That area near Duck Creek is stunning this time of year. Actually, I think its stunning all year round. Anyhow…..
500mb winds showing a storm Jetstream transporting tons of moisture into the Southwest US.Photo byNorman Purcell
The jetsream has dug pretty far South which means that our storm will be ingesting warmer water from the tropics, and that means A LOT of rain. This phenomenon is sometimes referred to as an atmospheric river event. You may have heard that term thrown around on the news. Our first picture here depicts upper level winds around 18,000 FT, and you can see where the jetstream has dug South, past the tropic of cancer (Hot Pink Line). Then, it comes back North (The wind is attempting to circulate an area of low pressure) and Utah is in the bullseye for a few days. The scale at the bottom of this map is wind speeds in Knots. If you are interested in figuring it in MPH, multiply the speed in knots by 1.15 . example (V x 1.15).