Lightning delays and monsoons at the football game!

[CajunMama]

I think this was the longest football game i've ever been to. Before the two teams even kicked off there were 2 or 3 thirty minute lightning delays and then in the first quarter another lightning delay.

As I was entering the football stadium, the heavens broke loose! I was drenched head to toe and had to end up buying a tshirt at the game since i was wearing a white shirt! I was so wet i couldn't even wipe my glasses dry! It drizzled during the game and in the last couple of minutes of the game it started raining again.

BTW, Breinla's son helped Louisiana beat North Carolina A&T 48-7!

[Aslkahuna]

How many seasonal reversal of winds (monsoons) did you see? FWIW the misuse of the word monsoon is a major pet peeve of mine.

Steve

[CajunMama]

Good gosh...i was just using it as slang like many people do here. Here when you think of monsoon you think of heavy rain.

[Ptarmigan]

UT vs Iowa State was delayed in the 3rd quarter due to storms coming. Anyways, we won.

[Aslkahuna]

Here the media tends to use the word to mean thunderstorms that occur during the monsoon and it drives the Mets up the wall. The problem is, monsoons are NOT associated with heavy rain. The NE Monsoon over Asia in the Winter is bone dry in many places while the Summer monsoon can have periods of heavy rain but ironically thunderstorms are uncommon during those periods. If you think I'm nitpicky about the word my son, whose Masters and PhD studies involve the Noth American Monsoon, is even more so.

Steve

[Stephanie]

Good gosh...i was just using it as slang like many people do here. Here when you think of monsoon you think of heavy rain.

I've used it to describe a heavy rain we've received from a thunderstorm. You're not the only one Cajun....

[BreinLa]

Okay, since my son played his butt off and Mama's daughter danced her butt off, like it or not, I declare what was going on yesterday here in Cajun Country as a CAJUN MONSOON, end of story.

[Stephanie]

Okay, since my son played his butt off and Mama's daughter danced her butt off, like it or not, I declare what was going on yesterday here in Cajun Country as a CAJUN MONSOON, end of story.

[Ptarmigan]

Here the media tends to use the word to mean thunderstorms that occur during the monsoon and it drives the Mets up the wall. The problem is, monsoons are NOT associated with heavy rain. The NE Monsoon over Asia in the Winter is bone dry in many places while the Summer monsoon can have periods of heavy rain but ironically thunderstorms are uncommon during those periods. If you think I'm nitpicky about the word my son, whose Masters and PhD studies involve the Noth American Monsoon, is even more so.

Steve

Monsoons are wind patterns. I guess when there are thunderstorms, lots of rain falls at once.

[Aslkahuna]

More specifically, a monsoon is a seasonal reversal of windflow. Here in AZ, our typical SW windflow we see almost all year shifts to E-SE during the period of mid June into early September with an average start date in early July. It represents the northern extremity of the larger North American Monsoon circulation. The rain and thunderstorms we get are a consequence of the monsoon and not the monsoon itself. During the monsoon we will recieve on average 65% of our rainfall and approximately 78 thunderstorms over 59 days (there are breaks in the monsoon). This year the monsoon started on June 29th and ended on September 7th during which we got 12-13 inches of rain. Those big storms you noted in Mexico are also a consequence of the monsoon (my son says that in places down there they may get over 100 inches of rain during the monsoon. BUT! As I mentioned, monsoons can also be bone dry like the Winter one in Asia.

Steve

[AussieMark]

aren't there technically only 3 monsoons

Australasia, India and Africa?

[Aslkahuna]

No, the Indian monsoon extends into much of Asia while the NE monsoon of Asia originates in Asia and extends across India and then across the Equator to become the NW monsoon (The Wet in Australia). The Summer circulation pattern over Central America, Mexico and into the SW US is now recognized as a true Monsoon albeit the weakest one of the bunch. The precursors and post monsoonal transitions are quite similar and the trigger-the heating of the interior including the high desert of the Great Basin is identical. There is also a sharply defined seasonal wind shift and a monsoon trough does develop. A paper by Andrew Comrie of the UofA plus others published in the October 1997 BAMS gives the overall description of the North American Monsoon. Dr. Comrie is, BTW, one of my son's Graduate Studies advisors.

Steve

[wall_cloud]

its good to know that I'm not the only anal one