Chilly (for August) in the Eastern U.S., with flood risk out West

The weather patterns remain fairly stagnant and relatively boring as is typically the case across the Northern Hemisphere in late summer. There are still some zones of activity, including the Western States, where the monsoon is alive and kicking.

Weather watch

Summer storms. After a meager year for it in many places, the monsoon is making itself known in the Western U.S. In addition to a stunning dust storm in Phoenix (more below), this monsoonal surge is causing scattered flooding from California to Colorado on Monday. Today, the Weather Service is watching five distinct areas for the potential of flooding rain across the same general region.

Record chill. It’s not often I get to talk about record cold, but it’s currently outdoing record warmth across the Lower 48. We can thank the winter-like pattern bringing mainly pleasant conditions to the eastern half of the country. Records Tuesday morning are temperatures mainly in the 40s and 50s. Similar is expected Wednesday.

Lightning links

Has the British summer changed beyond recognition? (Ben Rich, BBC)

Phoenix haboob

As noted above, the monsoon is monsooning (finally).

A seasonal wind shift bringing moisture and storm chances to the region, it’s been a quiet monsoon this year in many spots, but on Monday it kicked up a huge wall of dust that swallowed Phoenix. Weather folk call it a haboob, using the fancy Arabic term for the phenomenon.

The image above is from a long video of it arriving from Fox 10 in Phoenix.

Winds gusted as high as 70 mph at Phoenix Sky Harbor Airport, causing damage at the facility. CNN reported more than 60,000 people lost power in Arizona during the storms and haboob.

It’s a relatively standard setup for a monsoonal surge, with portion of the dominant subtropical high pressure flexing northward over the 4-Corners region. A similar pattern may continue a while, perhaps keeping the monsoon comparatively active after its slow start.

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Weekday morning newsletter by a journalist/forecaster. Connecting weather and climate change dots while occasionally stirring the pot.

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