MikJournal Monday 09/07/15

Monday, again. Well, at least for some, you do not have to work today. Rub it in, you know you want to. But for the rest of us, back to work, except I get paid holiday pay plus double time....I'll take it.

If you have noticed the U.S. Temperature section of the 1,420+ locations I follow (which is not a complete list of every weather station), earlier this week, the number of 100 degree locations dropped to 11. But, as you see from Sunday's reports, summer is not over yet. At least 56 locations topped the century mark despite the highest readings not exceeding 105.

Actually, according to the Weather Prediction Center, the national high and low for yesterday was 108 at Death Valley CA and 17 at Bodie State Park CA, which is about 75 miles southeast of Lake Tahoe near the CA/NV border.

The remnants of Ignacio is expected to impact the west coast of far southern Alaska later this week. That is pretty amazing for a tropical system to survive this far north. Technically, it is not a tropical system anymore but is extratropical. Still high winds and waves are expected to pound the coastline.

Afterward, it traverses through Canada as just another low pressure system. It may not have a direct bearing on our weather here but will steer winds so that a series of other storm systems may drop down this way from time to time. This will produce a period of unsettled weather along with cooler temperatures.

In fact, one of the models that I am looking at has some of the coldest readings of the season closing in on the U.S./Canadian border by the 16th of the month. How far south could it reach? I'll be looking at that this week to see if this model waffles like others have in the past. But, it looks like we could get a glancing blow at the very least. I'm talking about lows in the low to mid 40's for some of us before the first official day of Fall.

On a related note, the snowpack across North America is nearly zilch. Look for that to change over the next two weeks. Don't know if it will last, but signs are already showing up for a pattern change later this month toward cooler weather.

It's been dry around here. Louisville Int'l has now recorded 16 consecutive days with no measurable precipitation. I have had sprinkles at my house for 3 consecutive days but nothing measurable. My streak is at 13 now in Valley Station for no measurable precipitation.

The next drought monitor report comes out this Thursday. I expect a larger portion of Kentucky may be included in an 'abnormally dry' shading. It may not be a drought, certainly not like the long-term drought you see in California. But, it has been abnormally dry over the last two weeks for some of us.

I'm working on a little project for my next post. I'll be talking about the summer numbers that are coming in and how warm it is again. 2015 could go down as the hottest year on record globally, eclipsing last year's numbers. But, are all of these claims about the hottest year on record just a 'bunch of hot air'? Or is there statistical and verifiable proof that supports the claims that the ten hottest years on record have all occurred since 1998?

MS