More Of The Same - Weather Lesson

Below is a picture of the jet stream winds up around 25,000 feet for later in the week - almost a mirror image of the pattern in place today.

There is a large trough of low pressure parked over the west with a large bubble of high pressure (or a ridge) over the east.

Where the two meet, under and just either side of the jet stream (the line in green) is where the major weather can be found.

Under the low (big red "L") it is cooler than normal and somewhat unsettled. Under the high (big blue "H") it is warm and mostly dry.

And under the jet stream (thick green line)  it is windy! And at times, stormy! There have been several tornadoes over the past few days right along and to the right of the jet stream, from north Texas to North Dakota.

Expect the pattern to continue into the weekend before things shift and the flow becomes more zonal, or west to east, as shown in the picture below which is a forecast of the winds next week.

In this type of pattern it would be fairly seasonal for most of the country with the active weather well to the north, under the jet stream.

This would allow the temperatures in the deserts of the southwest to really start hearing up! That low over southern California is called a "Heat Low" this time of the year.

With it, fire danger could increase across southern California as the flow is from the higher mountains toward the coast - hot and dry.