Sunday, October 12, 2008

Inverted Trough?

Inverted trough? Yes. The clouds and very very light drizzle in our region are due to the influence of an inverted trough. The general definition of inverted would refer to a system that isn't normal or rare. We usually see troughs move from West to East across the country, but we are seeing a small trough (shortwave) move from East to West in the SE'stern U.S. This is very unique and has caused MOS and other models to miss the forecast for a few runs, but I feel like most meteorologist are starting to grasp the whole scenario very well. We saw high temps today only in the mid-70s and we actually recorded 0.01" of rain here at the station. I know a few of us here in the PIB did experience very light drizzle, which didn't accumulate into much precip.

My forecast has this inverted trough moving out of the way by early Tuesday morning, which will allow more sunshine on Tuesday and Wednesday. The next big weather factor comes into our forecast on Thurdsay/Friday as we will begin to see the influence of a cold front. This front shouldn't cause to much rain, but temps will decrease a little bit.

Long Range:
By Saturday and into the next week I expect a major Ridge/Trough pattern to lace itself across the nation. With a ridge developed over the Western U.S. we will see the impact of a Trough sitting/stalling in the Eastern Conus of the U.States. For us we will experience cooler temps and only a small chance of rain through next week.

tcade@wdam.com

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