la Nina rears her ugly head

Dauntless

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May 28, 2010
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Dang, actually starting off well. But a cold summer day with a cold summer rain is pure la Nina, only thing missing is a driving wind.

I guess it could have gentle moments, but la Nina means we'll have fierce storms the like we don't normally see in SoCal. Today is fairly wet, especially for the end of Spring. But surprisingly calm, caught me totally by surprise when I left the house and it was raining.
 
30% chance for tonight and tomorrow morning. Cooling off so much that Chomper, the Global Warming Tortoise, won't come out from under his artificial rock cave to eat his favorite snack: romaine lettuce. The roses even temporarily stopped blooming from lack of sun. It's supposed to be warmer next week. :)
 
It's been over 110F here since mid-previous week, then this past week between 105-110F mostly. Last couple days it dropped below that, and last night it actually rained for a few minutes, enough to soak the ground good, then cleared up almost completely until this afternooon when it clouded up again for a couple hours. Now it's all clear again.

But it still hasn't had a day below 100F for a high, and hasn't gotten much below 90F until just before dawn on several days (some have gone to high 70s just before dawn, but in 80s up till then, then of course right back up as soon as the sun rises, usually over 90-95F by 8am).

And that's all in the shade. :/

In the direct sun it has been up to 145F at ground level (bare dirt) on the 115F+ day a week ago.

Now temperatures are going to go rapidly back up next few days to have another 115F+ weekend. :(
 
So it's swung all the way back to la nina again? That usually throws my patch of desert back to severe drought.

Whatever it is, normal is no longer the norm. This year all that texas wet spilled this way, and we had the coolest memorial day in recent memory. The last la nina had texas dry as hell. Right now it seems like the monsoon is here, about 3 weeks early.
 
-----------------------------------------------La Niña Rain Gage-------------------------------------------------
Nothin'/Skunked-Foggy Doggy-Play Misty-Drizzle Corn-Light Showers-Steady Soaker-Bands/Sheets-Cats & Dogs
-- :twisted: -------------------------------------------------------------------------------------------------------------

It has been very wierd weather for the last year, I guess the trends don't mean what they used to. :? I am always amazed that the same system which amounts to nothing but a hiccup as it comes off the ocean morphs into severe weather when it meets the plains. Something strange is happening, enough to confuse a tortoise's hibernation habits and to throw him off his feed. I need to ask some other local tortoise owners if they've noticed anything different.
 
Winterish today, not so cold but it's been drizzling off and on. How many days in the past few years has it seemed as though at least SOMETHING should be coming down? I guess this is gonna fight the hot trough that kept the rain away.
 
In southern Bitish Columbia after an unusually warm and dry May (which saw temperatures routinely hit the low 30's) (~90F), June has so far been cooler and a little wetter; perhaps this is the La Nina influence.

La nina has a strong influence on British Columbia Canada (home of Grin Technologies), which can often render this region unusually cool and wet. During the last La Nina, summer temps in Summer 2011 often failed to rise above 18C (65F) for weeks on end. Last Summer was unusually hot and dry, and the region spent much of the summer under unprecedented water use restrictions.
 
Cooled off today, only reached 99.something. :roll:

Forecast for next week rises up to 116-120F by Sunday depending on who you ask. The one I check that gives me the closest forecasts to what I actually experience is this one:
http://forecast.weather.gov/MapClick.php?CityName=Phoenix&state=AZ&site=PSR&lat=33.5592&lon=-112.132

Overnight
Clear, with a low around 71. South wind around 5 mph becoming calm.
Tuesday
Sunny, with a high near 101. Calm wind becoming south southwest around 5 mph in the afternoon.
Tuesday Night
Clear, with a low around 72. West southwest wind around 5 mph becoming calm in the evening.
Wednesday
Sunny, with a high near 102. South southeast wind 5 to 10 mph becoming southwest in the afternoon.
Wednesday Night
Clear, with a low around 73. West southwest wind 5 to 10 mph becoming southeast after midnight.
Thursday
Sunny, with a high near 102. Southeast wind 5 to 10 mph becoming west southwest in the afternoon.
Thursday Night
Clear, with a low around 74. West southwest wind 5 to 10 mph becoming light and variable in the evening.
Friday
Sunny, with a high near 105. Calm wind becoming west southwest around 5 mph in the afternoon.
Friday Night
Clear, with a low around 77. West wind around 5 mph becoming north northeast after midnight.
Saturday
Sunny and hot, with a high near 111. Light and variable wind becoming west 5 to 10 mph in the afternoon.
Saturday Night
Clear, with a low around 82. West wind 5 to 10 mph becoming north northeast after midnight.
Sunday
Sunny and hot, with a high near 117. Light and variable wind becoming west 5 to 10 mph in the afternoon.
Sunday Night
Clear, with a low around 85. West wind 5 to 10 mph becoming northeast after midnight.
Monday
Sunny and hot, with a high near 116. East wind 5 to 10 mph becoming west southwest in the afternoon.
 
Next three weeks is going to be bad hot around the desert SW USA. But that's not la nina, that's just normal weather for June. Predictions are for cooler, meaning it must rain, for 4th of july weekend. That's also normal. The monsoon back right on time.

Nothing I looked for on the net said we're in la nina right now, but they do say one is forecast to form, since it does tend to swing farther back the other way after a strong el nino.

Last time we had strong la nina, the monsoon was very spotty, and when it finally came, the last rain you could measure was in October. That might happen next year, but this year seems more like fading el nino to me. Dry mid and west Texas is one thing I look for as an indicator we are going to get la nina hammered here, but this year Texas is flooded.
 
They told us that the cold spell we have now was coming, that it was the beginning of la Nina. If el Nino is over, I'd guess it was la Nina causing Texas.

They say hot summer weather is just about it hit us, no word on if it's to be a hot summer.
 
I'm not doubting la nina is on the way. Just saying that for the moment, it's acting more like the normal here. Texas is wet enough, for us to have a decent summer monsoon.

But not really normal, it has been cool and wet for may. Hardly can measure the rain, but clouds on memorial weekend are weird. I think that was the last gasp of e nino myself. I'm sure you get affected by la nina different that NM does. What happens here in la nina, is a deepening dry starts in Texas, and spreads to here. Basically, once East Texas dries out from a changed weather pattern, it simply can't rain in Midland tx till it has rained in San Antonio. And if it can't rain in Midland, it can't rain in El Paso either, unless we get some push from the west, driving Arizonas rain into NM. It all hinges on the summer positions of a high east of us, and a low near Baja.

In a normal year, whatever that is. Either the baja low, or the gulf of mexico high will position itself just right, and pump moisture all the way to AZ and NM. In a good year, they both position just right, and a stream of moisture will form watering Chihuaha's mountains, Arizona, and New Mexico. That's the summer monsoon, that is responsible for at least half the moisture we get each year, not counting what drains from Colorado. As the positions change, El Paso and Southern NM can get moisture either from Baja, or from Brownsville, with few tall mountains blocking the flow. Then the sun provides the lift needed to form thunderstorms that give us the desperately needed rain. 8 inches a year here is "normal". Less than the dust bowl got in the thirties, is normal. There'd be no life here at all, if not for the river water and pumped ground water. Beats me how ranches survive here.
 
-----------------------------------------------La Niña Rain Gage-------------------------------------------------
Nothin'/Skunked-Foggy Doggy-Play Misty-Drizzle Corn-Light Showers-Steady Soaker-Bands/Sheets-Cats & Dogs
-------------------------------------- :( ----------------------------------------------------------------------------
 
New forecast (after 102F high yesterday):


Today
Sunny, with a high near 102. Southwest wind 5 to 10 mph.
Tonight
Clear, with a low around 73. West southwest wind 5 to 10 mph becoming light and variable after midnight.
Thursday
Sunny, with a high near 102. East southeast wind 5 to 10 mph becoming west southwest in the afternoon.
Thursday Night
Clear, with a low around 75. West wind around 5 mph becoming calm in the evening.
Friday
Sunny, with a high near 105. East wind around 5 mph becoming west southwest in the afternoon.
Friday Night
Clear, with a low around 76. West wind around 5 mph becoming north northeast after midnight.
Saturday
Sunny and hot, with a high near 111. Light and variable wind becoming west 5 to 10 mph in the afternoon.
Saturday Night
Clear, with a low around 81. West wind 5 to 10 mph becoming northeast after midnight.
Sunday
Sunny and hot, with a high near 118. North wind around 5 mph becoming southwest in the morning.
Sunday Night
Clear, with a low around 85. West northwest wind around 5 mph becoming east northeast after midnight.
Monday
Sunny and hot, with a high near 118. East wind around 5 mph becoming southwest in the afternoon.
Monday Night
Mostly clear, with a low around 84. West southwest wind around 5 mph becoming southeast after midnight.
Tuesday
Sunny and hot, with a high near 117. Light and variable wind becoming southwest 5 to 10 mph in the afternoon.
 
118 will be a joy I'm sure. Though you are used to heat in Phoenix, 118 is truly crazy hot. I recorded an unofficial 118 here, at 4000 feet one year. 105-110 is more like the normal hottest day of the year.

I'll never forget being on the side of the road halfway between Yuma and Gila Bend once, with a blown radiator hose. It was 115. Anything over 105 just wipes me out. We used up the water limping along, then started on putting the beer in the radiator.

Should only get to about 107 here this week.
 
dogman dan said:
118 will be a joy I'm sure. Though you are used to heat in Phoenix, 118 is truly crazy hot. I recorded an unofficial 118 here, at 4000 feet one year. 105-110 is more like the normal hottest day of the year.

I'll never forget being on the side of the road halfway between Yuma and Gila Bend once, with a blown radiator hose. It was 115. Anything over 105 just wipes me out. We used up the water limping along, then started on putting the beer in the radiator.

Should only get to about 107 here this week.

118, wow. Barely reached 52F here the past few days. We had crazy snow in the north shore the day before yesterday.

People are adopting creative solutions for their commutes.

North Shore snow.jpg
 
Last couple years we've had as high as 125F unofficially in various places in teh valley, maybe higher.

Today it's supposed to be 102F; it's already 97 out there and not noon yet.

The good news is there is still a breeze, but I'm still having to wet my hat and shirt when I go out to do the watering in the morning around 9-10am.

When it gets over 105F then on the ride to work I wet my hat (big floppy cotton hat with chinstrap and wide-ish brim, piece of copper housewire pushed thru the rim to keep it stiff around the front edge so it won't flop in my face while riding), and tuck a wet handtowel under it in back to cool my back and neck and shoulders.

I wet the hat anyway when it's over 90-95F, cuz it's 5-15F above that on the roads when stopped (and even hotter if there's a bunch of cars waiting at the light with me, surrounding me and blocking off any breeze).
 
Details here
https://endless-sphere.com/forums/viewtopic.php?f=1&t=49550&p=1196872#p1196872

but it's over 120F today already (was 111-113F yesterday). :(

Not gonna have a high under 110F for a week or more:

This Afternoon
Sunny and hot, with a high near 119. Calm wind becoming west southwest around 5 mph.
Tonight
Clear, with a low around 87. West southwest wind 5 to 10 mph becoming light and variable after midnight.
Monday
Sunny and hot, with a high near 118. Calm wind becoming south southeast around 5 mph in the morning.
Monday Night
Partly cloudy, with a low around 87. South southwest wind around 5 mph.
Tuesday
Mostly sunny and hot, with a high near 113. South wind around 5 mph becoming west southwest in the afternoon.
Tuesday Night
Partly cloudy, with a low around 85. West southwest wind 5 to 10 mph.
Wednesday
Mostly sunny and hot, with a high near 112. Light south wind becoming west southwest 5 to 10 mph in the afternoon.
Wednesday Night
Mostly clear, with a low around 84. West wind 5 to 10 mph becoming north after midnight.
Thursday
Sunny and hot, with a high near 111. North wind 5 to 10 mph becoming west southwest in the afternoon.
Thursday Night
Partly cloudy, with a low around 85. South southwest wind 5 to 10 mph.
Friday
Mostly sunny and hot, with a high near 111. Southwest wind 5 to 10 mph.
Friday Night
Mostly clear, with a low around 85. West southwest wind 5 to 10 mph becoming south southeast after midnight.
Saturday
Sunny and hot, with a high near 111. South southeast wind 5 to 10 mph becoming west southwest in the afternoon.
 
Last I looked around 930pm, it was still 106F outside. :shock: :cry:

At a friend's house a few miles from here, it's still 107F. Mine is probalby cooler because of the trees/plants and their evaporation (transpiration?).
 
10pm here and it's 86. Hard to believe the humidity is only 35%. Or maybe that's not inside the house, where it's above 86. Not half bad outside, when I leave the house.

California State University Fullerton weather station. http://geography.fullerton.edu/weather/
 
Last night at midnight (last time I checked temperature out in the yard, letting Teddy and Yogi out for post-dinner potties), it was still as hot out there as it had been *at peak in the afternoon* a few days before. :(

Today it's only supposed to be 117F, but as of 1030am it's already 108F.

Still ain't goin' under 111F all week.
 
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