A welcomed quiet stretch

Folks in the south are finally getting a break from Big Bad storms.

When we forecast for storms we look at all levels of the atmosphere to get a solid understanding of wind direction and how strong they’re blowing.

Generally, to get storms, you look for dips in the jet stream called “troughs.” You May hear your local weatherman say “a trough of low pressure.” They say that because that’s what Low’s look like in the jet stream.

High pressure systems, on the other hand, point towards the north in the jet stream. So they are called a “ridge of high pressure.” High’s usually bring calm weather conditions.

Take a quick look at this snap shot from the GFS model, you’ll notice we labeled the blue “H” for high, and red “L” for low. See the big dip near the low, and push north around the high? That’s what we’re talking about.

By looking at that, you’ll see the low is over the Great Lakes and has been bringing rain and storms up and down the East Coast. That high will continue to move eastward and keep the weather calm over much of the south through the weekend.

We also see a “zonal flow” setting up for the early part of next week. That means there are no big dips or ridges in the jet stream and everything is blowing west to east. The weather will continue to mellow out and return to “typical” until we see another one of those dips. It will be a bit warm though.