September 12, 2014: Michael Erickson led a discussion titled, “A Look at the Weather and All it’s Glory.”
Mike began his vaguely titled weather discussion by taking a look at the previous weeks weather, which was quite anomalous for the western half of the country. First on the board was the anomalous rain and flooding that occurred in the Southwestern United States on 9/8/2014. This anomalous event was likely caused by the circulation of Norbert modifying the flow to it’s east, possibly in conjunction with some Atlantic influence. This resulted in severe flooding , particularly in Arizona.
Focus then shifted to an anomalous cold air outbreak in the Plains banking up against the Rockies combined with a lee cyclogenesis event. The result was an early season snow event along the front range on 9/11/2014. Snow totals ranged from a dusting or light coating in Boulder, CO and Rapid City, SD, to 14″ in Story, WY.
Finally, focus shifted locally to Long Island where the weather has been quite pleasant, not just recently, but for most of the summer. A glimpse at the LGA timeseries of temperature compared to normal showed consistently normal summer temperatures with an absence of extended periods of anomalous warmth or cold. One slight exception to this occurred in early September where temperatures averaged a few degrees above normal. The long range forecast showed continued pleasant weather with the chance for a decent cool air intrusion from Canada by next Friday.
