Hahahahah. That is the funniest thing I have thought of in a long time, and its not that funny. Take a look at this “spaghetti” plot for 10 days from now based on last night’s global data. The map is for 500 mb, about 15,000 to 20, ooo feet above sea level.
“High predictability”, even as far as 1o days out, is indicated by those areas where the bluegreen and red lines are all close together. For example, in the upper left hand corner, or in eastern Asia and the extreme western Pacific Ocean if you can make those areas out through all the lines. Also, both the red and bluegreen lines themselves are pretty close together there, and that says the jet stream is extremely strong there, normal for that region in wintertime. That jet stream is geographically anchored in that region and so not much changes there, even from winter to winter.
But then look what happens to that compact jet stream as it approaches the middle of the Pacific! It comes apart, line a twisted speaker wire that’s been untwisted. The bluegreen lines, representing a colder portion of the jet stream, mostly head off to the NE, while the red lines, indicating a warmer portion of the jet stream, split off and continue more or less toward the east across the Pacific and into the Southwest. However, the details of both flows, the northern one and the southern warmer one, are pretty unknown, as evidenced by all the “scatter” in the lines, the “bowl of rubber bands” you see in the east half of the Pacific and into North America (and elsewhere). Note that the lines are tending to group that bit more over the eastern US, suggesting higher predictability, and the presence of an upper level trough (and cold in the East).
For the sake of contrast, here is the same kind of plot for just 48 h from now, showing high predictability. Of course, things always go to HELL in the longer term, but today’s 10 day vagaries are more than usual.
So, what seems to be ahead for sure is a split in the jet stream in the eastern Pacific with one of the branches coming toward us. That is the good part since that branch can be pretty wet if it is strong. But, as you can see, exactly where it is, and that’s crucial, is really anyone’s guess at this point. That warmer jet has to be south of us to have any rain with the disturbances that are shuttling along in it. And if you look over AZ, the red lines of the warmer jet are all over the map, literally.
Hence, to use an old word there, particularly uncertain times ahead. In fact the only thing that is certain, is with the southern branch of the jet in this area, there will at least be passing regions of clouds as upper air troughs go by. Will they, like yesterday, only be Cirrus? Or rainy Nimbostratus?
The second shot shows a nice “parhelia” or “sun dog” at the far right, caused by plate-like ice crystals falling face down, the normal mode. The final shot has some the rarely seen Cirrus castellanus, Cirrus clouds with little turrets or humps at the top.
