As you know this is the time of year the desert heats up. June 1st the average daily high at PSP (Palm Springs Int’l) is 98. The Sun is relentless. The sky is mainly cloud free.
Weather stops happening.
Well, not exactly. Around thirty percent of June days have any clouds at all. We average rain on one of every fifty early June days–2%.
The computers have been flirting with some precipitation Saturday, give-or-take a day. This far out Saturday is still a little fuzzy.
A low forms over the northern end of the Gulf of California (in Mexico) then meanders north. There’s a splotchy pattern of moisture showing in the Saturday model output. By Tuesday this atmospheric weakness sucks up the remnants of what will have been Hurricane Blanco.
Go ahead. You can reread the last sentence. Even I got confused.
Bottom line, there will be moisture somewhere in the Desert Southwest.
This morning the GFS showed .3″ for PSP. Tonight zip. The moisture is still nearby. It’s too close to call five days away.
For the next few days I’ll be looking at lots of maps, charts and numbers. I love this stuff.
What I always find the most interesting about summer temps in the USA, is that unlike in the cold season (December through March) when temps across the US mainland are all over the place (maybe 15F in Green Bay, 50 F Las Vegas, 78 F in Miami…etc),…and the difference can often be 30 to 40 F difference.
In summer temps are far more uniform across the USA, this week is a good example: While the forecast highs for Las Vegas or Palm Springs is around 95 F, 2000 miles away the forecast highs for Dallas or San Antonio are around 90 F (less than 5 F difference)….go another 1000 miles east and the forecast highs in Jacksonville or Savannah are around 88 F(still less than 10 F difference from points 3000 miles west). In the coming days, temps across the mainland will be even closer, about 80% of the US mainland will have high temps either in the from about 70 to 95 F. Only the deserts (Yuma if forecasted to hit 104 F by late week), and the far Pacific Northwest (Seattle expected to only reach about 65 F late week) will fall out of this range.
We seem to be a nation where our winter temps are much different than our summer temps.