This past week has been quite the wet one for those of us along the east coast, and especially down in the panhandle of Florida. Inlet beach, Florida had received nearly 20″ of rain in two days! That is crazy stuff right there! But you may be wondering what is causing all this rain, that put quite the damper on your 4th of July activities?
Check out those rainfall totals!
There is an upper level trough sitting over the Mississippi River Valley, pulling tropical moisture northward, causing all the rain we have been seeing. Ahead of a trough is where we see precipitation and a dip in the temperature. Sitting in the Atlantic is a ridge of high pressure. High pressure systems are relatively stable bringing along those beautiful sunshine filled perfect days everyone hopes for when they plan a trip to the beach. The ridge of high pressure over the Atlantic has stalled, keeping the trough put, adding to those already record rainfall amounts to the east of the system.
The brown dotted lines in the above photo indicate troughs. If you’re curious about what the other symbols mean, check out noaa.gov.
WeatherWonderings 