For awhile now, I've been letting my pictures do the talking as to what type of Spring and Summer we've been having here in our tri-state region. Spring burst forth with color since we had a real Spring this year. Summer gardens are almost as vibrant because we really haven't had prolonged scorching heat or humidity. What we have seen is a number of beautiful Summer days with highs between 80 and 85 with low humidity. Sometimes, we get a string of 2, 3 or even 4 in a row. Then heat and humidity start to return but before we start to wilt, another cold front comes along and knocks the uncomfortable weather aside. Unfortunately, this pattern has led to several severe outbreaks, about a handful more than usual by this time of year. We've had plenty of damage from severe thunderstorms, flooding and even the recent Long Island tornado. No, this is NOT related to global warming. No one weather event can be linked directly to to global warming.
The same cannot be said for other parts of the country which are baking in extreme heat. It's a scorching dry heat in the west and southwest while the Summer muggies continue in the south and southeast. For weeks now, that heat has been progged to make it to our region but it is continuously thwarted by the parade of cold fronts. Low pressure in eastern Canada is providing the impetus for the cold fronts to keep dropping down.
Also, the tropical Atlantic has been exceptionally quiet again after all the doomsday predictions. I'm not saying it won't suddenly flare up. Factors in the Pacific, wind shear, placement of High pressure etc all play a roll in determining how many tropical systems will boil up. There were plenty of excuses to go around about last year's lack of hurricanes. Don't ever let your guard down; it only takes one to destroy any particular neighborhood to label the season 'a bad one'. (Actually, there has been more of a storm in NOAA's offices of the Tropical Prediction Center (National Hurricane Center) than in the ocean waters. You may have read the articles about the director being replaced and under scrutiny for trying to get the money that they need to do their jobs correctly. Unfortunately, he made some tactical errors in how he went about it so he's been made out to be a whistle blower- inotherwords- better keep him quiet. I offer no further personal opinion on this matter. All I hope is that they are able to do their job correctly and keep the public safe. (I'm actually heading down to Florida with the family for a few days to meet some colleagues and discuss the tropical season and a visit to Sea World. Keep those tropical waters calm!)
It will be interesting to see if the pattern changes over the week and I return home to the same type of stifling heat and humidity I'll experience in Florida. We're approaching August; it's bound to happen sooner rather than later.
