Weather In The Coachella Valley

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I forecast the weather in the Palm Springs area. It’s called the Coachella Valley.

I know some of you reading this have never been west. It’s different than the rest of America. That’s especially true for Palm Springs.

By virtue of location, Palm Springs and the Coachella Valley would be a desert even if they weren’t mostly ringed by mountains. But they are. Most of those mountains are tall and very steep. We’ve got 10,000+ foot peaks steeper than the Rockies.

The Coachella Valley is drier than much of the surrounding area, also desert. It is only green because distant water has been made available. It was a limitless supply. Not anymore.

The valley itself is broad and mostly flat. Some areas at the southern end are a few hundred feet below sea level! Don’t worry, the sea is a few mountain ranges away.

IMAG2216_1There are few places in the Palm Springs region where you don’t see rugged, steep, treeless mountains. Near KMIR’s studio they’re present in a few directions.

No one actually see the Sun set. It disappears in the mountains and gets dark later.

The mountains give the valley lots of ‘rain shade.’ Storms hit the far side of the mountains and lose their liquid before crossing over. We get some clouds… sometimes.

The mountains make forecasting perilous. I’ve already learned the MOS (Model Output Statistic) tends to underpredict high dew points coming from the south. Every place has their own weather quirks. There are other local ‘ground rules’ I consider when translating the computer’s call into mine.

Friends said forecast PSP would be boring. Nope. Not once. Maybe I just like mathematical intricacy.

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