THE WEATHER OF 2019...FRIEND OR FOE?

Aside from the southeast, most of the nation and Canada has been cool since the beginning of the year. You can see the 2019 departures below. North America the focus of the Earths coolest temperatures.

If the trend for cooler temperatures holds the rest of the year, it would be the first time since 1996 the nation would average below normal for an entire year.

Extremes are expected with climate change and we certainly have evidence of that. The Last 30 Days, Year-to-Date, and last 365 Days have seen many records set in the nation. Though not hyped, we have had more record lows than highs in these periods, many records for snowfall and especially precipitation. The past two relate to amplitude and persistence in the overall jet stream and temperature anomaly patterns.

Since 2012 every year has seen above normal precipitation, a trend you would expect with increased water vapor.

Here's the yearly precipitation departures. Many areas had record annual rainfall, especially through June. Some of the surpluses have been whittled down the past 6 or 7 weeks.

Snowfall last winter was quite impressive. After a warm snow starved December, a number of spots ended up setting all time seasonal records.

When it comes to severe weather its a well known fact you need moisture and thermal contrast for strong storms. This pattern provided it in early March, April and especially May when tornadoes were a significant factor. There was a 13 day consecutive stretch with severe weather in May.

I was personally fortunate enough to witness the strongest tornado of the year, an EF4 which passed just west of Lawrence, Kansas the end of May. I took this picture of the rain wrapped twister approaching Linwood, Kansas.

After it passed we were saddened to see this. Fortunately there were no serious injuries.

What appeared to be a potentially significant severe weather day Monday passed with little fanfare in my part of the Midwest. Many areas in my backyard also missed out on the rains. Models did a poor job of handling this particular system. Here's the radar estimates through 9:30 Monday evening.

Now that the front responsible for rain and sticky weather has passed, the next few days promise to be nice ones as high pressure returns with comfortable temperatures and generally dry conditions through Thursday. Nothing wrong with that! Roll weather...TS