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The Story Behind the Weather - By Forecaster John Ensworth M.S. - 

The Discussion of Weather Events Daily for Philadelphia and Pennsylvania

 Last updated: 11/21/2003 09:23 AM
 

Good Morning Philadelphia!   

    I'm glad to announce that these discussions will continue until at least the end of this Year!.  I have the needed server space.

In short:   Dry and warm through the weekend, then rain and colder weather around Tuesday.

We have very clear skies over the northeast with just a couple river canyons filled with some morning fog (the thin white lines on the ground in the central and northeast part of the state).  You can still see the wrap-around clouds associated with the low off the Mass.  coast. 

This mornings infrared satellite view (showing temperature of cloud tops, the ground and the ocean) really shows the warm ocean/ Gulf Stream current in the lower right of the picture. The land is about the same temperature or a bit warmer than the Great Lakes this morning. Can you see it?

We are on the north side of a relatively warm High pressure system to the south.  The clockwise air flow around the high is marked in light green arrows. This southwest flow can be seen on the next graphic...

The southwest winds coming out and around the high center is effecting the entire state and ...

I ushering in nice warm 50's into the region (even though it's still in the upper 40's at this time of the morning...it's coming). 

If you have followed the last 2-3 days of discussions, the trough was expected, at one time, to cut-off over our region and dump days of rain on us.  It HAS finally cut off from the main flow in the upper level winds (the wind on this map is blowing at about 18,000feet above sea level parallel to the dark lines from west to east over the continent) but is further to the northeast than expected.  There is a stubby ridge right behind this low and that will bring on our warming. 

So we'll look at the nice weather to come.  Saturday 1am, we have a front sink down into the Philadelphia area, but little will change with this on. 

By Saturday night 7pm, we are still having nice weather. 

A monster trough is rolling through the center of the country by Sunday night 7pm, 

And this shows up as a new wave of rain and thunderstorms (and snow) heading east for a destiny with Philadelphia by mid-week. But more on that as the weekend progresses. 

Enjoy the dry nice weather and get ready for a real shot of winter in the middle of next week. 

I'll see you here Saturday NIGHT- for a late and brief update. I'll be teaching Astronomy all day Saturday.

Meteorologist  John Ensworth

Surface Station sky cover color key: