Tuesday, October 20, 2015

Cutoff Low, Weatherman's Woe

The recent wacky unseasonable "subtropically" thunderstorms afflicting California with rains featuring monsoonal characteristics in how they were experienced (twice) were caused by a cutoff low that went careening over California two different times. Last weekend I experienced thunderstorms over the Sierra Foothills while at a men's retreat at Hartland which would not normally happen in the second half of October. The day before I left for the conference deadly flashfloods afflicted parts of Kern and Los Angeles Counties killing at least one and shutting down both Interstate-5 and Highway 58 adversely impacting travel north to south and east to west in parts of Southern California. Remember the late Dr. George Fischbeck's old adage "Cutoff low, weatherman's woe"? Needless to say, cutoff lows are hard to predict as far as their course given they are cut off from the jet stream or any other significant steering winds. Below is a satellite loop of the aforementioned cutoff low. 

No comments:

Post a Comment