This year's severe weather season is beyond pathetic
Posted: Fri May 07, 2004 12:54 am
I don't believe this. Here we are, already SIX days into what is TYPICALLY the most active month of the year for severe storms, and there hasn't been jack within a 1000 mile radius of tornado alley for better than a week! Once AGAIN, the ridge that has plagued us all year long is back in place over the western half of the country, and this means we can pretty well forget about seeing any noteworthy outbreaks, or for that matter, anything even remotely resembling severe over the central US for god knows how long. Heck I doubt if we ever WILL see the end of this dry, stormless pattern, at least not in this stinking year. I remember back in early April when everyone on this board was ridiculing my prediction of an extremely inactive severe weather season, saying that the season was merely "off to a late start" and that "things will change". Well guess what? It's already MAY and NOTHING has changed. I'll just put it into perspective by saying that this would be like going until September 6th without a single hurricane forming in the Atlantic basin.
2004's storm drought has already smashed virtually every record in the books, and the season will just continue to fall further and further behind the longer this ridge hangs around. And even if we do finally get an upper level setup that is conducive for storms, the season as a whole will still rank as one of the slowest seasons known to modern meteorologists. Nothing will make up for the unprecedented lack of storms we've seen in the first half of this season, NOTHING. But I'm willing to wager that the aforementioned pattern change will never happen anyway. We're already 51 days into the supposed season for severe weather and the only thing we've seen is a pattern dominated by dry, stormless ridges! Face it, this year will forever be remembered as the "year without a severe weather season", and that's exactly what I said way back in March. Looks like I was right on the money.
2004's storm drought has already smashed virtually every record in the books, and the season will just continue to fall further and further behind the longer this ridge hangs around. And even if we do finally get an upper level setup that is conducive for storms, the season as a whole will still rank as one of the slowest seasons known to modern meteorologists. Nothing will make up for the unprecedented lack of storms we've seen in the first half of this season, NOTHING. But I'm willing to wager that the aforementioned pattern change will never happen anyway. We're already 51 days into the supposed season for severe weather and the only thing we've seen is a pattern dominated by dry, stormless ridges! Face it, this year will forever be remembered as the "year without a severe weather season", and that's exactly what I said way back in March. Looks like I was right on the money.
