Heat wave conditions are currently baking Alaska and the upper level ridge responsible continues to strengthen, meaning the past weekend’s record, even new all-time monthly records could be beaten today.
Yesterday saw the temperature soar to 91 degrees at Talkeetna which is a tie for the hottest reading ever recorded here, McGrath reached 90 while Fairbanks soared to 88, 2 shy of the record for the date.
Check out the ridge and all that orange on the ECMWF upper chart for today up over Alaska.
The below satellite image courtesy of the Anchorage NWS shows Alaska pretty much cloud free just now and warming up nicely.
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The ridge core is pretty much centred directly over Fairbanks today and as a result, here are the current conditions in town, courtesy of newsminer.com.
Source: newsminer.com
Today should be even warmer than yesterday from Fairbanks to Anchorage thanks to stronger heights and warmer 850mb temperatures. The depth of sinking has increased and so we shall see temperatures push 90 today in Fairbanks while Talkeetna and McGrath are sure to reach 92-94. Anchorage is expected to surpass 80 for the first time since July 2009 when it hit 81 degrees.
At one point this morning, Fairbanks was still at 80 degrees while Orlando, Florida was a ‘refreshing’ 78 degrees according to TWC’s Eric Fisher. Not every morning do you see that, he quoted and rightly so.
The expected 94 degrees over the state’s Southwest Interior would be just 6 degrees shy of Alaska’s all-time record high.
Here’s a full list of yesterday’s record highs.
The pattern across the Lower 48 has turned fairly quiet with a fairly classic summertime pattern now in place. There will be some severe weather over the Plains but it’s more run of the mill stuff compared to recent times while the usual heat can be found over the Southwest Deserts, though temperatures will go from 2-5 above normal to below normal over the next 5 days. Plentiful rains over Florida and the Southeast.
There is however a fairly significant low set to push into Washington and Oregon over the next couple of days which will present a sharp cool down along with an increase in cloud and showers. Both Seattle and Portland will stay in the low 60s for a few days as the upper low passes overhead and it’s this feature which will push some of the hottest air from the Deserts ENE into the Plains where Kansas and Oklahoma should once again push triple digits late week.
Here’s the ECMWF chart for Wednesday.
Note the upper low pushing onto the West Coast.
While the trough drops down the West Coast and trimming heights over the Southwest, this naturally forces the ridge axis east, ultimately having downwind effects by dropping heights over the Northeast. Today upper 80s in Washington, Baltimore and Philadelphia will drop to the upper 70s, low 80s with much lower humidity by mid to late week and so while temperatures increase in the central Plains, they decrease in the East as winds veer NW.
The ECMWF is in fact forcing hot air up towards Minneapolis and Chicago by Friday and Saturday. We could see low 90s for both cities.
By Saturday (above) the hot air is pushing into the Midwest with major cities such as Minneapolis, Chicago and St Louis pushing the low to mid-90s as the upper low crosses the Northern Rockies. By this time, heights are rebuilding again over the Southwest and so temperatures are once again on the rise over the Deserts.
More later!
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