So you may be thinking to yourself… There’s a cold front approaching our area from the W, so I just might get a session in today. Well, in an ideal approaching cold front setup with a strong well positioned center of low pressure associated with the boundary and a strong high pressure out in the Atlantic, that would be a good assumption especially if we add hot inland temps and some strong sunshine into the mix.
Today, we see a good example of a non-ideal wind making approaching cold front setup for us here in the U.S., complete with a few complications in the form of prefrontal troughs. (It’s likely howling in the Gulf of St. Lawrence especially in the venturi between Labrador and Newfoundland… Notice the tightly packed isobars:)
Looking at the map below we can see that the strong center of low pressure associated with this approaching cold front is too far up into Canada to be of any influence to our area. The small centers of low pressure in the vicinity of the Great Lakes are more of a hindrance than a help wind speed wise. The elongated high pressure around the Mid-Atlantic States is weak, poorly formed and not in an ideal location. And finally, as if we needed any other detractors in our setup, a few prefrontal troughs are scattered throughout the East Coast. The Mid-Atlantic States high along with the jet stream did help steer the strong center of low pressure up in to Canada.
Keep your fingers crossed for the next approaching system;) We’re also smack dab in the middle of hurricane season and fall is right around the corner… Time to dust off my 4.4m and 4.0m!
Post by WeatherFlow Meteorologist Dave Breckenridge
