question for weather gurus

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wartknight

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Mar 24, 2006
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What is causing our current weather pattern with basically storms spinning, kind of like a large hurricane with the pattern it looks like on the map, around the midwest?
 

KneeGusto

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May 13, 2006
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S̶q̶u̶a̶w̶ Ioway Creek
I'm no guru but I'd bet it has something to do with the jet stream.

300x199_05251528_maysevere.jpg
 

FDWxMan

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Jan 31, 2009
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Des Moines
It is a "cut-off/closed low" system.

Happens sometimes when big lows or troughs of low pressure dig deep enough that they break off from the jet stream. When that happens there is nothing to steer the system so it moves very slowly and just spins, in addition to the surface low and upper level low becoming stacked straight up through the atmosphere. (Typically the storms are tilted as you climb higher, upper level low lagging behind to the west.)

Does look like a hurricane, since hurricanes do not have the tilt our systems have, they are "stacked" lows as well.
 
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brianhos

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Jun 1, 2006
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I think it has something to do with the fact that it is spring in the midwest and this happens every year.
 
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kingcy

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I also heard that El Nina has a hand in it as well. Also there are storms like this every year, it just happens that this year they are happening in cities, instead of rural areas.
 

CYKOFAN

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Mar 27, 2006
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I know I'm going to pay more attention to the tornado warnings from now on. Pretty scary though when people are even getting killed in their basements.
 

Cyhart

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Aug 15, 2009
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I also heard that El Nina has a hand in it as well. Also there are storms like this every year, it just happens that this year they are happening in cities, instead of rural areas.

Yes, I have heard that is a large part of it. If I remember right there is El Nina and El Nino. One makes our weather better and one makes it worse. We are experiencing the one that makes it worse.
It has something to do with colder than normal pacific waters.
How is that for hard-hitting scientific analysis?!!
 

tman24

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Feb 6, 2008
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[ame=http://www.youtube.com/watch?v=IvmeUStFvz8]YouTube - ‪"El Nino" Chris Farley‬‏[/ame]
 

2020cy

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Aug 7, 2006
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It's just like the movie, hurricane storms with flooding and tornadoes, followed by blizzards.
 

Danger

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Apr 11, 2006
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The current La Nina is the primary reason for the recent extremes in the weather as it is one of the strongest occurrences over the past 50+ years. This La Nina onset last June and has accentuated weather extremes. We saw above normal heat last summer, harsh winters in the Dakotas and Northeast, and now a cold, wet, violent spring, all characteristic of a La Nina weather pattern. A similar strong La Nina occurred in 1974 and was characterized by a wet spring, hot summer, and an extremely early killing freeze that fall. When the southern outbreak of tornadoes occurred several weeks ago, it was the most since the Super Outbreak of.......1974.
 

CYKOFAN

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Mar 27, 2006
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I've been around about 60 years and I don't need a scientist to tell me that the weather has been getting more extreme when it comes to storms, precipitation, floods, etc.
 

CloneIce

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Apr 11, 2006
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I've been around about 60 years and I don't need a scientist to tell me that the weather has been getting more extreme when it comes to storms, precipitation, floods, etc.

No doubt it has. We are going through a period of extreme weather, lots of rainfall and flooding, as well as so many natural disasters lately.
 

Incyte

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Apr 12, 2007
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I've been around about 60 years and I don't need a scientist to tell me that the weather has been getting more extreme when it comes to storms, precipitation, floods, etc.

We also live in a world with 24-hour news cycles and a plethora of communication channels. What seemed like an isolated, far-distant event 20 years ago is now headline news until the next crisis.
 

CYKOFAN

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Mar 27, 2006
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True we're in an age of instant 24 hour news, but one of the things I've noticed the last few years is the rainfall. When I was a kid a 4-5 inch rain was extremely rare from what I remember. Now it seems like it happens routinely, and occasionally a rainfall of 7 inches or more somewhere in Iowa. No wonder we're getting 500 year floods every few years.