geez....shouldv'e stayed in Australia.? Thought it might be reasonable this weekend.....nah
and now I'm concerned I'm going t be too warm in central BC in June...
Hot Arctic and a Chill in the Northeast: What’s Behind the Gloomy Spring Weather?BRENDA EKWURZEL, SENIOR CLIMATE SCIENTIST | MAY 17, 2019, 10:21 AM EDT
When temperatures hit the 80s Fahrenheit in May above latitude 40, sun-seekers hit the parks, lakes, and beaches, and thoughts turn to summer. By contrast, when temperatures lurk in the drizzly 40s and 50s well into flower season, northerners get impatient for summer. But when those 80-degree temperatures visit latitude 64 in Russia, as they just did, and when sleet disrupts Mother’s Day weekend in May in Massachusetts, as it just did, thoughts turn to: what is going on here?
Hot arctic
Before we jump into the science, let’s take a quick look at the unusual spring weather. This past weekend, Russia was the scene of record-high temperatures. A city above the Arctic circle—Arkhangelsk—recorded a high of 84 degrees Fahrenheit on May 11 at the Talagi Airport weather station. The average high temperature for Arkhangelsk this time of year is around 54 degrees Fahrenheit.
Gloomy weather
Meanwhile in the Northeast US, try having a conversation that doesn’t loop back to the endlessly gloomy, chilly, unseasonable weather. When gloomy weather becomes such a dominant topic of conversation in a region, a form of citizen science is occurring, and it tells you something: it is unusual, it is anomalous, it is downright wacky.
Many locations are not seeing the sun nearly as much as normal memory serves—and science confirms—for this time of year. The Long Island town of Islip, New York, recorded its longest streak of rainy days on record from April 20 to May 7. It rained for 21 days this April in Boston.
It’s not just in the Northeast: repeated rain events resulted in much of the contiguous US being ranked in the 99th percentile for soil moisture on May 14, including many of the Plain states (South Dakota, Nebraska, Kansas, Oklahoma, and Texas) and most states eastward. This is a continuation of a high soil moisture ranking percentile pattern (see Jan – April 2019 in Figure 1). Soil moisture ranking percentile is from the 1948-2000 Climatology
As of this writing, there are headlines with exasperated tones wondering when winter will truly depart, including:
In that third article, Jason Samenow describes the abnormal late May forecast for snow, hail, tornadoes, flooding, and excessive heat to different parts of the contiguous US over upcoming days.
- “Chicago narrowly misses breaking 112-year-old record for late-season snow” – April 28, 2019 Chicago Tribune
- “It MAY snow in the Northeast this week. In MAY” – May 13, 2019 CNN
- “Extreme weather pattern to divide nation next week…”– May 16, 2019 Washington Post