question for weather gurus

**wartknight** · 05-25-2011, 11:28 AM

What is causing our current weather pattern with basically storms spinning, kind of like a large hurricane with the pattern it looks like on the map, around the midwest?

**KneeGusto** · 05-25-2011, 11:50 AM

I'm no guru but I'd bet it has something to do with the jet stream.

**FDWxMan** · 05-25-2011, 11:52 AM

It is a "cut-off/closed low" system.

Happens sometimes when big lows or troughs of low pressure dig deep enough that they break off from the jet stream. When that happens there is nothing to steer the system so it moves very slowly and just spins, in addition to the surface low and upper level low becoming stacked straight up through the atmosphere. (Typically the storms are tilted as you climb higher, upper level low lagging behind to the west.)

Does look like a hurricane, since hurricanes do not have the tilt our systems have, they are "stacked" lows as well.

**brianhos** · 05-25-2011, 12:59 PM

I think it has something to do with the fact that it is spring in the midwest and this happens every year.

**kingcy** · 05-25-2011, 01:10 PM

I also heard that El Nina has a hand in it as well. Also there are storms like this every year, it just happens that this year they are happening in cities, instead of rural areas.

**CYKOFAN** · 05-25-2011, 01:36 PM

I know I'm going to pay more attention to the tornado warnings from now on. Pretty scary though when people are even getting killed in their basements.

**Cyhart** · 05-25-2011, 01:47 PM

Originally Posted by kingcy

I also heard that El Nina has a hand in it as well. Also there are storms like this every year, it just happens that this year they are happening in cities, instead of rural areas.

Yes, I have heard that is a large part of it. If I remember right there is El Nina and El Nino. One makes our weather better and one makes it worse. We are experiencing the one that makes it worse.
It has something to do with colder than normal pacific waters.
How is that for hard-hitting scientific analysis?!!

**IcSyU** · 05-25-2011, 01:50 PM

I'm no meteorologist, nor did I stay at a Holiday Inn Express last night, but wouldn't it be La Nina or El Nino?

**nfrine** · 05-25-2011, 01:51 PM

This is caused by global warming. - Al Gore

**Naughtius** · 05-25-2011, 01:51 PM

Ever tried to check a swing and hurt your wrist? Now imagine checking a Rapture.

**CYCLNST8** · 05-25-2011, 02:02 PM

Originally Posted by nfrine

This is caused by global warming. - Al Gore

Well it can WARM UP here any time now. I've been waiting...

Initially I thought this thread was an obvious setup for school spirit:

Cyclone - Wikipedia, the free encyclopedia

**tman24** · 05-25-2011, 02:06 PM

[ame=http://www.youtube.com/watch?v=IvmeUStFvz8]YouTube - ‪"El Nino" Chris Farley‬&rlm;[/ame]

**2020cy** · 05-25-2011, 02:23 PM

It's just like the movie, hurricane storms with flooding and tornadoes, followed by blizzards.

**Cyhart** · 05-25-2011, 02:29 PM

Originally Posted by IcSyU

I'm no meteorologist, nor did I stay at a Holiday Inn Express last night, but wouldn't it be La Nina or El Nino?

+1!
I think you are quite right. I never did very well with those foreign languages!

**Danger** · 05-25-2011, 03:22 PM

The current La Nina is the primary reason for the recent extremes in the weather as it is one of the strongest occurrences over the past 50+ years. This La Nina onset last June and has accentuated weather extremes. We saw above normal heat last summer, harsh winters in the Dakotas and Northeast, and now a cold, wet, violent spring, all characteristic of a La Nina weather pattern. A similar strong La Nina occurred in 1974 and was characterized by a wet spring, hot summer, and an extremely early killing freeze that fall. When the southern outbreak of tornadoes occurred several weeks ago, it was the most since the Super Outbreak of.......1974.