Another Weird Weather Day...

[Lord Jim]

The forecast called for a chance of showers, but it's been raining steadily since the middle of last night...

That's not the weird part...it's not unprecedented around here for the weather forecast to be wrong...and I'm certainly not complaining...(El Nino hasn't been a complete bust, it's provided a lot of relief particularly in NoCal, but it hasn't lived up to its Stormzilla advance reviews either...)

The weird part is that once again, the storm system is moving from East to West...

In other words, instead of coming in from the ocean, (or even down from the north or up from the south) it's crossing us and going out too the ocean...

I think I may have mentioned that I saw this happen for the first time in the nearly 30 years I've lived out here a couple of months ago...

It's happening again...

When I animate the Doppler radar, it looks like it's running backwards...

[RayThom]

... The weird part is that once again, the storm system is moving from East to West...
In other words, instead of coming in from the ocean, (or even down from the north or up from the south) it's crossing us and going out too the ocean... ...

Well, here's your problem, Geomagnetic Reversal.

As you can plainly see. If not maybe rubato will explain it to you:

Geomagnetic polarity during the last 5 million years (Pliocene and Quaternary, late Cenozoic Era). Dark areas denote periods where the polarity matches today's polarity, light areas denote periods where that polarity is reversed.

[dales]

It's called the "Pineapple Express", Lord Jim.

[Lord Jim]

Dale, the Pineapple Express comes inland from the Pacific; this storm sytem was going in the opposite direction...

Pineapple Express is a non-technical term for a meteorological phenomenon characterized by a strong and persistent flow of atmospheric moisture and associated with heavy precipitation from the waters adjacent to the Hawaiian Islands and extending to any location along the Pacific coast of North America. A Pineapple Express is an example of an atmospheric river, which is a more general term for such narrow corridors of enhanced water vapor transport at mid-latitudes around the world.

If not maybe rubato will explain it to you

Yeah, I don't see that happening...

[Joe Guy]

If you read Ray's graph and explanation and then review the graph below, you'll have a much better understanding of the current weather pattern....

[wesw]

it has to do with the mountains , jim...

ever heard of santa anas ?

geez man, how long have you lived in CA?

I learned about that in an east coast elementary school......

[Lord Jim]

ever heard of santa anas ?

Uhh, yes wes, I have...

I know all about the off shore breezes; it's when we usually have our warmest and driest weather...(We had that big time one day earlier this week; the temperature hit 90...today it hasn't gotten out of the fifties...)

But our storms (except for a couple of months ago and today) have for years without exception, come in from the ocean, because you need, uhh, moisture to produce precipitation...(perhaps you were unaware of that...)

[Lord Jim]

It stopped for a couple of hours, but has started up again...

There's a line of precipitation that on the map seems to extend all the way to the eastern border of Nevada thats on a trajectory to keep going right over us out to sea...

There's almost no wind, so we should be getting steady rain for many hours more...

[wesw]

according to wiki they occasionally happen at other times of the year too....

(I double-checked before I posted my smart-ass comment. it was in the the first or second sentence of the entry....)

[Joe Guy]

I haven't bothered to look it up, but the only thing I've ever heard about Santa Ana winds is they are warm and dry and affect Southern California.

Or is somebody talking about some other Santa Ana thingamajig that I've never heard about?

[MajGenl.Meade]

When I animate the Doppler radar, it looks like it's running backwards

I can't explain but that sentence amazes me every time I read it. It is the catnip of meteorological fascination.

[dales]

If not maybe rubato will explain it to you

Yeah, I don't see that happening...

One can always hope.

[rubato]

this is time-dependent so you'll have to look at this fairly soon to see what is being described:

http://radar.weather.gov/Conus/pacsouthwest_loop.php

It is a counter-clockwise rotation.

The weather pattern is circulating east across S. Cal and NE in Arizona heading up to the great basin where it turns west and then SW coming back across the W. Coast. Not a typical pattern for us. Usu. for Central California we get weather causing precipitation from the SW (pineapple express), W or NW (gulf of Alaska and colder).

On Fri-Sat the rain was coming from the S-SE and as the gyre progressed eastwards we have seen different parts of the circle.

I'm grateful for the rain anyway.


yrs,
rubato

[Scooter]

We have already had more snow in April than we got over the entire winter. AND there is more on the way tonight/tomorrow.

Some days I just want to up and move to fucking Tahiti.

[Long Run]

Some days I just want to up and move to fucking Tahiti.

You might sell 10,000 t-shirts with that in Toronto this month.

[Long Run]

In other words, instead of coming in from the ocean, (or even down from the north or up from the south) it's crossing us and going out too the ocean...

I think I may have mentioned that I saw this happen for the first time in the nearly 30 years I've lived out here a couple of months ago...

My first 20 years were in Nor-Cal and I never experienced this -- you always tracked the weather coming from the left side of the map. fwiw, never experienced this in 30+ years in the Great Northwest.

[datsunaholic]

I've seen it happen a couple times up here in WA. Pretty rare phenomenon, but it's possible any time there's a large cyclonic storm, the northern edge may get reverse winds.

[oldr_n_wsr]

nor-easters leading edge (I think it's the leading edge) goes east to west then the trailing edge goes west to east.

Any kind of "spinning" weather system will do that.