Omega Block- Summer Heat and Snow!

This is the Greek letter Omega, which is used to describe a blocking pattern in the atmosphere common in the spring. A pattern seen on the surface with two Low pressure systems and on large High stuck in the middle. This High will have below normal temperatures on the east side (like we just had), and above normal temperatures on the west side (like we are about to experience).
Below you will see how this plays out with the morning surface map (left), and 300mph jet stream (right). You can see how the letter Omega appears.
A very strong storm is siting just off of the East Coast. thanks to it pushing a little farther away, we get the wind shift and warm up. On Monday I was bold enough to post my 7 Day forecast. I made an adjustment on Tuesday and held all of my numbers since then. So far I am two for two- hitting 60F on Tuesday and 67F yesterday. This pattern will help us reach my target of 75F today and 80F tomorrow. The GFS models has bumped up to around 80F as well, and I am sure you will start to see some local forecasters jump on the wagon. Meanwhile, the western fringe of this ridge has another storm. Denver, CO has 6 inches of snow in their forecast today. How about that for contrast. Honestly though , that is pretty common for them. I would expect Denver to be between 75 and 80 by next week- but that does not mean that we will get snow. Sorry :-(

Did you know that the earth gives off a measurable sound? It's something beyond our scope of hearing, but quite interesting. For more- check out this story in Yahoo.

In this week leading up to Earth Day- The National Aquarium has a weekend of events scheduled. Click here for more info. The oceans should get more attention than the media is giving to- well other topics. This report from Scotland is particularly disturbing. A recent tide of plastic and debris washed onshore and is a major threat to wildlife. It is not isolated to Europe...This story on Yahoo's page (a double hit today) tells of 6 million pounds of trash on world beaches.