the severe weather season has officially started. sort of.
last sunday (when i was out of town, naturally) a severe thunderstorm hit winnipeg with up to quarter-sized hail.
on thursday, a near-severe storm popped up east of edmonton. (i'll have the visible satellite imagery on weather central from that event sooner rather than later.)
but we're right now stuck in this blocky pattern that has a monster upper low over the great lakes, spinning cloud and precipitation toward us.
the good news is that it looks like this "meteorological constipation", as i like to call it, will be ex-laxed out of here soon enough. what that means is that the farmers will be able to finish seeding, the northward transport of moisture should begin in earnest, and severe storms are around the corner. indeed, the forecast for thursday (the analog, at least) has a slight chance of showers or thunderstorms in southern saskatchewan and highs in the mid to upper 20s.
speaking of warm temperatures, this analog forecast is also calling for 33 degrees in the west kootenay district of bc. that would be areas like castlegar and nelson.
************************************************************
on a totally different note, i keep getting asked about how the summer will turn out. will it be good for severe storms, will it be hot, will it be dry, will it be this or that? the answer is, i don't know. i don't have much experience at forecasting seasonally, nor do i have much skill. the
official ec forecasts are out there, calling for a hot, dry summer. take that how you will. i personally won't say anything about it. what i will do, however, is a) just take whatever summer comes, and b) assume it won't be as dead after july 2 as is was last year.
************************************************************
on yet another note, the much-touted webmaster, eze, is in the office. he's currently learning more html, so it may be a few months yet before he's into prime time. until then, it'll be mainly yours truly doing the maintenance on the website. and i'm pretty busy these days, so the maintenance may be more sporadic than i'd like.
eze says hi. i'll see if he wants to join the blogging game on this--if he does, you'll soon see a post or two from him.