>Trough and Low Out West spells eastern ridge and trouble in between

Written by on October 29, 2009 in Rest of Europe with 3 Comments

>As I write this, the rain is hammering against the windows of my office as more Atlantic weather pushes into western Scotland’s rugged mountainous topography and down into the lowlands of the urbanised central belt, winds and pouring rain is in our forecast for the weekend, only good thing for most, is it won’t be cold, days and nights likely remaining in the 50s.

But it’s the United States that once again draws my attention and the overall set-up that’s driving your weather.
A western trough (fairly deep based and strong) is teleconnecting to an eastern ridge, sandwiched in between with a jet stream riping over top is a strong low and a collage of varying weather is menacing the Rockies to eastern Plains. Whether it be the 41 inches now down at Sand Lake, Wyoming or the 43 inches at Pinecliffe, Colorado or the strong winds and thunderstorms that are blowing up as the convergence of air excellerates as the front steams across a path of warm, boyant air lifting out of the Gulf. Converging surface air and divergence in the mid and upper levels creates a turbulent atmosphere that is capable of bringing 4 feet of snow and gales on the rear to 70-degree warmth, 70 -degree dew points that shifts to black clouds, hurricane-force winds, hail and a severe weather threat as well as tornadoc rotation. This combo is similar to springtime as residual warmth can spurt into cracks in between ridges and troughs and add fuel to an already fired up atmosphere.
With the western trough and eastern ridge, we see 60s shoot up from the Tennessee valley to northern New England, but it’s the Plains states that will get slammed, eastern sections will get hit later..

I expect 50-60 mph winds out across the plains with blizzards and snow drifts that top 4-6 feet on open, exposed areas of western Kansas and Nebraska as well as South Dakota.

In saying all this, the snow won’t last long on the ground as warm Pacific air streams in off the Pacific and across the country as the storm system pulls east flattening out the rinkles in the sheets, i.e. the trough-ridge will straighten out and a strong Pacific flow will take over.
Question is, do we see chinook warming down the east face of the Rockies and surface readings top the 70s, even 80s from western KS to western SD over the weekend??..
This is a progressive, yet locked (a contradiction I know), but I have problems with whether the trough remains persistent over the west and central states with Pacific lows pinwheeling around the trough-trough confluence as we enter November creating a turbulent month but cooler air building over the Arctic starts to bleed colder air onto the equation and adds fuel to west to east systems that get stap out of the Pacific and then see the trough migrate east and Pacific ridging nudge into the West by late December as El Nino’s feedback kicks in..
The southern branch will intensify as winter sets in bringing and cold, wet fall and winter from central California to Georgia and on up the East Coast. The southern branch though may bounce up and down from it’s mean position which could be around the Monterey Bay area of the central coast of CA.
I may add to this later if I have time and I feel I have more thoughts on this.
Thanks for reading.
-Mark

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  1. Leif says:

    >The big question is: will there be more snow in Kennoway or Kirkcaldy?

  2. Mark'sWxWorld says:

    >well Jamie, when the first snows hit, i want pics to see you wearing badminton rackets my friend!!

  3. JamieD5 says:

    >when are we likely to see a local snowfall here in Lochgelly. Should I have my snow mobile on standby? I've had to borrow some badminton racquets from fellow friends. Perhaps I could attach these to my feet to act as snow shoes…

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