Tuesday, May 11, 2010

10 degrees cooler than Normal

Where I live on the West Coast of the United States in Northern California it is at least 10 or more degrees cooler than normal this year. For example night time lows should be in the 50s but are still in the 40s which would be expected from November through March but not this late in the year. Though some nights are in the low 50s, high 40s are now the norm.

When this has happened in an El Nino year in the past often this means that the rainy season can last all summer long. Somehow this is what has happened in the past. The good news about this is that would usually mean that long time droughted areas across the Southern and middle U.S. will get some much needed rain. The bad news is that it will likely be a very cold summer, especially nights in most of California compared to what we are used to.

I think the El Nino together with the Ash Clouds circling the Northern Hemisphere are starting to create similar conditions in the Northern Hemisphere as when Mount Pinatubo went off in 1991. I can remember both during the Mt. St. Helens eruptions in 1980 and when Mt. Pinatubo erupted in 1991 it severely affected weather patterns in Oregon and California and Washington and likely Idaho and the rest of the United States both directly and indirectly. I can remember in Mt. Shasta in (near the Oregon Border in California) that we had green, Orange, Red and even purple and green sunsets after Mt. St. Helens and it got pretty strange after Pinatubo as well.

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