Happy Summer! ... and why so much rain???

Summer has officially arrived to the northern hemisphere!  Summer officially arrive at 12:16 p.m today - while you were probably enjoying a good lunch.  This also means that today is the longest day of the year.

However, it sure didn't feel like summer around the Upper Midwest today.  A strong low pressure system has been influencing the region since Monday evening and will continue to linger through the day on Thursday before finally moving out on Thursday night.  Some of these storms have had heavy rain with them as well.  There is so much moisture available for this storm system that's it's not funny!    Luckily, warmer and drier conditions will return by the weekend.  By why is this storm so powerful?

It actually because of the monsoon that has been going on over southeast Asia and the Philippines.  Energy from the monsoon has managed to follow the jet stream across the Pacific and reform into storms just off the west coast.  As the new storm then moves across the Rocky Mountains, it meets a lot of available moisture in the Mississippi River Valley.  This is due to the flow around an upper level ridge of high pressure over the Southeast U.S. pumping the moisture in from the Gulf of Mexico.  Add to it a slowly moving weather pattern and you get a good soaker.

Many areas in the Upper Midwest are currently seeing floods (along the Missouri River - record flooding... yikes!) while other areas are under flash flood watches.  I got to experience a flash flood indirectly on Sunday morning as over 5 inches of rain in under 3 hours created a flash flood in the valleys around SW Vernon/NW Crawford County.  The resulting flash flood wiped out my Internet and phone connection making it impossible for me to forecast weather.  It also wreaked havoc on the rural road infrastructure in the region.  Not good.

Anyways, let's hope we don't get any more rain for a while.  We've had enough.  There are other areas of the country that need it worse - like Texas, Arizona, New Mexico, and the other drought stricken areas of the Southern U.S.

Until next time, stay dry - and Happy Summer!