And the Meteorologist says "Active Weather Pattern." Whats that??

There hasn't been much going on the past 2 days weather wise but I did notice that the Midwest is supposed to be affected by another winter storm. It seems that this is happening ever two days or so since just before Thanksgiving. (At least that is when Fargo got its first major snow)


The weather pattern we are in is very active. I know you are thinking to yourself, "What the H*** is an active weather pattern?" I'm here to answer that!!


ACTIVE WEATHER PATTERN
Here is a scenario. You are listening to a weather person on TV, they say "active weather pattern" ... here is what it means!


An Active Weather Pattern is when there is a lot going on in the weather. Meaning the US keeps getting pounded by Low Pressure System after Low Pressure System and there is no sign of it letting up.


This is what is happening to the Midwest right now. A Low sets up right off the Pacific North coast and it develops as it moves past the Rockies and is at "full steam" by the time it hits the Dakota's and MN.


Weather Patterns!!!
Weather systems (like the low pressures that we have been experiencing) tend to run along the jet stream (a swiftly flowing air current really really high up), in a pattern. Below is a picture of the pattern across the N. Hemisphere as of December 2nd at 7am.  

(Courtesy of the University of Wyoming) December 2nd, 250 mb map.
Shows the weather patterns around the N. Hemisphere.

There are long waves around the picture in the blue lines. Those are lines of constant heights. The atmosphere wants to always keep the same number of waves in balance. That is usually around 4-5 waves. If it is more then 5 the weather patterns tend to be more progressive. If there are less than 5 the patterns are less progressive (Weather Forcasting Red Book, Vasquez). The more progressive the weather pattern is, the more storm systems we see!


FORECAST FOR THIS WEEKEND
According to both the NWS in Grand Forks and the NWS in the Twin Cities, Friday MN and ND are expecting another weather system snow totals towards 8" in some places.


So hang in there Midwest. The snow is coming once again!



Courtesy of the NWS in Grand Forks, ND.



Courtesy of the NWS in Chanhassen, MN

Courtesy of the NWS in Duluth, MN.

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A couple things I wanted to clarify:
1) Low Pressure System/Low/Storm System/Low Pressure
2) The forecasts that I shared with you are soley from the NWS. I had no help in making them. If you want to see what more they have to say head out to:

nws.noaa.gov

and click on the map where you are located.
3) If I have stated somthing incorrectly in my blog (for all you weather people), please let me know... so one I can fix it and two I can correct myself in my head.