Posted on 05/21/2013 6:29:09 AM PDT by topher
The Gulf of Mexico's warm air is part of the ingredient for tornado alley in the US. The other ingredient in this mix is cool/cold Canadian air.
The United States was blessed with very few tornadoes in March and April of 2013.
But the United States was going through an extendeded cold spell this Spring.
How cold? Living in Louisiana, the mosquitoes seemed to be blown into the Gulf of Mexico [by a frigid Northernly wind] as fish food most of this Spring. There have been very few mosquitoes bugging us this Spring [so far].
But now the bad news: for the tornado season to start in mid-May/late-May is a very bad thing. Why? Because the days are much longer in late May than they are in late March/early April.
The heating of the sun helps to provide energy for thunderstorms.
Tornado alley is an area where warm air from the Gulf of Mexico streaming North to clash with Canadian air streaming down to the South.
Since daytime heating is longer right now, there is the threat of the tornadoes for a longer period than there would be in late March/early April.
It seems like the days are considerably longer right now than when they were in late March (around Easter Sunday). Hence, a longer day means that more heat is generated for thunderstorms in the afternoon hours.
Without access to the weather data, it is unclear if having longer daytime heating will make these storms stronger.
Apparently, the US Weather Service has been lulled to sleep by the long cool spell this Spring.
Unfortunately, it may have taken the deaths of about 20 school children in Moore, Oklahoma to wake them up...
Thank you.
The absence of clouds means that the weather 30 to 40 miles from the Gulf is not being influenced by Gulf moisture.
If we have a southerly wind, we tend to have clouds, though they may not be rain producers...
If we have a northerly wind, it usually is a cloudless day as the moisture tends to come from the Rockies and deserts (plains).
I don't have an answer to the question of why less moisture right now, but the Pacific Ocean is a major influence on the West and Midwest in terms of moisture...
>>The length of the day in Duluth, Minnesota on June 22nd is considerably longer than the length of the day in Brownsville, Texas on June 22nd.
As the sun moves further north during the summer months, the says are longer in the northern hemisphere.<<
But it does so every year in pretty much the same way. There is no more “day light” today than the same day for the last million+ years.
That is what I was referring to.
Most of this Spring has been very uneventful.
It is my opinion that we have a late arriving tornado season.
And I could be wrong about that! But our cold Spring, in my opinion, has pushed back when we have started to have severe weather.
The DrudgeReport.com noted about a month ago had very few tornadoes that the United States has had...
>>It sure doesn’t feel like Summer. It doesn’t even feel like Spring some days. <<
Do not confuse weather with climate.
There are very complex reasons why a “hurricane/tornado season” emerges (none based on AGW), but extended daylight is not one of them (any more than in any other year).
This has changed this year with the cold Spring. One person posted on this thread that it is still too cold to plant anything.
That is unusual.
Latest ice out on Mn Lakes since the early 50’s.
We do have a late arriving spring and as a hater of winter, that isn’t good.
However, it’s well known that May has always been a rough month for weather in Oklahoma and elsewhere in Tornado Alley. But to infer that NOAA was asleep and thus responsible for the deaths of those poor children is a real stretch.
There is a scientific reason for longer days this time of year. It is called “Summer.” But it happens every year, amazingly, at this same time.
There are other factors in the creation of tornadoes: the clash between a cooler air mass and a warmer air mass.
It is my belief that the sun is a heat engine.
I may be wrong.
But one interesting thing was that a tornado hit the same area in 1999 (but it was a much more powerful tornado -- 300 mph winds versus 200 mph winds).
It would be interesting to study when the most powerful tornadoes occur, and plot them by month as the National Weather Service has done for hurricanes.
Don’t park your car on it to see how thick the ice is. [Only let a liberal do that...]
You are correct: it is wrong of me to imply that NOAA is responsible for the deaths of the children.
No excuse. I am just very upset with the Obama Administration, and all the nasty things that it is doing: Benghazi, IRS, DOJ, Fast and Furious, etc.
I am venting in the wrong direction...
All this is granted given, received wisdom and common knowledge and eighth grade science. You respond to a question but do not answer it. Instead you simply say everything you know about the subject. It is if I had asked why one would add curry to a Jello recipe and you reply by reciting to me the directions on the back of the box.
But if they arrive earlier there will be more of them...can’t win for losin’!
You Wrote:
...longer days preceded by cooler weather...
Address this first. Note that I may be wrong in what I am suggesting.
I still believe I am right (intuition).
In our current weather, some people have observed fewer clouds this spring. That means the suns heat is not diminished by cloud cover.
If this is the case, then the faucet to turn on energy for tornadoes is greater (the lack of cloud cover means the heat of the sun translates into more heating).
If there is an area near this source of energy that is a clash between cold air/warm air, then there will be more energy.
Longer days translates into more energy ...
Now the other case:
... longer days preceded by warmer weather
Basically, more cloud cover (warmer weather).
With more cloud cover, then there will be less energy available, and the length of the day is less of an issue.
The extreme heat one finds in Death Valley, California or in parts of Arizona (days with temperatures up to 120 degrees) are brought about because these areas do not have any cloud cover -- just dry parts of the country.
No cloud cover means the heat of the sun is the on position, in a sense.
So once we start having warmer days, we may observe more clouds, and the sun's faucet to produce heat is a reduced position.
In my theory, having warmer days first produces cloud cover which in turn reduces some of the heating of the sun.
>>Well, it used to. But now that mankind has dumped so much CO2 in the air, Mann’s models are showing that soon summer will begin in November and winter will begin in June. t’s our fault.<<
Don’t forget the solar flares — those are our fault, too!
;)
Don’t forget the solar flares — those are our fault, too!
/s
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