Suddenly Summer

It's been over a month since I last opined and felt the need to do so again.  Say it ain't so, Smitty!  Why?  Well, it's suddenly summer!  After what was the coldest April nationwide, we have sprung upon one of the warmest merry month of Mays we have endured.  Last Saturday was a glorious day in terms of heat and humidity!  My wonderful wife thinks I'm sick loving those atmospheric conditions...and she knew something was up when I put the AC on in the morning!  But with a strengthening Bermuda High, some Gulf troubles (Alberto), a civil twilight commencing around 4:30 am along with the fact that high school graduations are within a Stevie Nick of time, I'm realizing it's suddenly summer!  First, reflecting back on the northeast's cold April...

It was certainly a cold month compared to normal.  Contrast that to May...Wow!

But looming next week is a refreshing air mass from our neighbors to the north; O Canada!  Check out the 5 day anomaly at 1 mile up which reflects nicely down to the surface in terms of the temps...

A nice poleward ridge in the western and central part of the US whilst a trough dips equatorward off the eastern part of North America.  Here is the 500 mb map depicted for the middle of next week...

Contrast that to this Friday morning's upper air...a nice steamy flow from the Gulf of Mexico riding the Appalachians up into Quebec.  That's been the weak flow for days now and thus the murky conditions we've experienced most of the week.

And that moisture is deep all along the east coast out into the western Atlantic with precipitable water at least 2" in the column!  Take a look...

That is why flash flooding is a concern with these slow moving rainers...and this is what a flash flood looks like on a stream gauge just a stone's throw away from Ellicott City, MD last Sunday!  The little run shown below shows that what normally has 16 gallons flowing past a point every second suddenly had nearly 32,000 gallons per second!  Whoa Nellie! 

OK...I've opined enough for today.  June 1 is the official start of summer and with a warm May just passing by, many believe that summer started before Memorial Day.  By the way, May was a full 5.0ºF above the 30 year norms!  That's difficult to do especially with our 1.92" wetter than normal month to boot. 

The artist of the song I'll leave y'all with is referenced above...and I hope you enjoy this ditty (which is not about a township in Cumberland County or a little hamlet in West Hempfield Township, Lanco)!  Enjoy...

And enjoy your week's end!

Smitty

AA:  After some warm and wet weather this weekend, the temps will certainly be returning to normal and even slightly below normal for the middle and end of next week.   The mowers will be going gang busters!