Well into Summer

Thursday, July 15, 2010

9:52 A.M.

It's hard to believe that only a few weeks ago we were wondering if we were ever going to reach 75 degrees for a high. I, for one, was hoping for us to stay at 74 for the rest of the summer. In other words, have a nice, comfortable summer, but just keep the record going. Getting to 75 would be like stopping a marathon when you are on the closing stretch. But now that we have gotten all the way up to 95 this year, I don't want it to be 74! I want it to be 94! Maybe it is a little uncomfortable, but I really want the lake to warm up enough so that the perch start biting. Once the temperature gets above 70 degrees or so, they really start biting, and right now the temperature in the lake is around 65. Give it a couple more weeks and the lake will be teeming with hungry yellow perch. If you've never gone fishing in the lake, I highly recommend it off of any of the docks. Just go to Linc's tackle shop on rainier and they'll get you set up with everything you need.

What's the weather forecast looking like for this week and beyond? It looks like it will be dominated by a light onshore flow. This will keep things seasonable, with highs in the mid 70s and lows in the mid 50s. High temperatures will drop a couple degrees later this week as the onshore flow becomes more moderate. All in all, a pretty lame-duck weather situation. To give you an idea of how much the weather will change, look at the current situation above, and the one forecasted

The main thing we will see, technically speaking, is a retrogration of the ridge of high pressure to even further west out over the Pacific, allowing some cooler air from up north to sneak in via the jet stream.

The weather is frankly pretty boring around here during the summer, so what is happening around the world? The Atlantic is fairly quiet, but the big story that caught my eye were the record breaking dew points in the midwest. Places in Iowa had dewpoints over 90! That is absolutely unbearable. Anything above 60 is sticky. Once you get above 70, you are closing in on the torture zone. 90? That's unheard of.

Have a good one.

Charlie

Finally getting warmer

Thursday, July 1, 2010

4:40 P.M.

Remember how I said I didn't think it was going to get to 75 last week? Well, I was wrong. We finally broke the streak. I was hoping we could extend it as long as possible. Now that it is over however, I am ready for the heat. And it is going to get pretty hot around here!

We aren't talking about a major heat wave. However, the persistent trough that has been over us will finally move east, making way for a ridge of high pressure. This will cause an increased thickness over the atmosphere, which basically a way of saying the level between two millibar points in the atmosphere will increase due to increased temperature and/or humidity. Still, we wiull get above 80 easily next week, and we start to really feel the effects of summer on July 5th (as always).

I'm having problems with web pictures on blogger. I post them but it doesn't resize them to the correct resolution. If anybody could help me with this, that would be awesome.

Thanks and have a great day,

Charlie