Thursday, May 22, 2008

Cancel the trip to Greenland! Here come the 80s

The weather has been nicer in Greenland than Lafayette? Well of course it is all relative. Greenland has had some 60s in their forecast on days that we were stuck with 50s, but while we have been below average on 16 of 21 days, much of Greenland has been enjoying above average temperatures. You can cancel those plans to head to that island paradise and you will not even have to worry about a 15 dollar per suitcase charge because our new weather pattern is ready to set in! Check out why we have been so chilly and unsettled below.


The Greenland high pressure has helped form a big dome of warm air that has actually suppressed our jet stream 500 miles farther south than it should be. This has led to a devastating tornado season in the south and west with already over 20 fatalities and counting. Here in Indiana we have been on the cool side of the jet stream, which has also helped to keep our atmosphere more stable. A northwest flow may have been a bit painful to take for this time of year, but as I always say, it could have been a lot worse and I would rather have chilly weather than tornadoes any day.
Now that the Greenland high pressure is breaking down this will allow our jet stream to bounce back to the North and with it we will warm up nicely. We are way overdue for 80s as you can see below.

We have a lot of catching up to do with only two 80 degree days so far this year. Last year we ended up with 123 days of 80 or above and this year we can't buy an 80 degree day. We have had only 2 compared to 14 days at 80 degrees or above at this time last year. But do not fret warmer weather lovers! In our seven day forecast I have at least three days that will reach 80 or above. Pool temperatures around the area are a bit chilly and only near 60, but this time of year if you can get a couple of back to back 80 degree days it can help heat those water temperatures up to 70 or above. So if you are hitting the pool this weekend, it may be a little chilly but nothing to keep you from swimming. I have a nice book ready to read by the pool on Saturday, but I will definitely be going into the water with my kids. How about Race Day? Well, it is the first time in the nearly 10 years I have lived in Indiana that it has been an easy forecast. Now that I have written this out, we may be doomed, but I think we will have less than a 10 percent chance of rain and it will be the warmest day of the year. Check it out!

You can see Danica in the pits at last year's pole day and it should look a lot like this on Sunday. This is quite an improvement. Of course the Indy 500 was shortened due to rain last year with only 125 laps completed. This year I expect a full 200 to be completed without any delays. Have fun and remember your hats and sunscreen. Now that a warmer pattern is building in we will talk about when and if this will crank up our severe weather season. Check back here on the blog for more on this and I will tell you why it may come sooner than you think. I will talk to you soon and see you tonight.

2 comments:

Anonymous said...

greenland is cold and iceland is warm, right?
(guess you can tell what subject i slept through while in school!!)

Anonymous said...

I can't wait until race day Im not going to the race but me and my family always have a cook out and listen to the race on the radio.
It is always fun and we all have a good time.

Justin in Lafayette.