Summer 2007!!!

Hi, this is kind of astronomy related, I suppose it affects our observational astronomy greatly, interesting information all the same I thought you might want to look at!

Came across an interesting news story from the BBC regarding our summer (summer, where?) of 2007. Apparently the Atlantic Jetstream has a substantial effect on our weather systems! There are other factors too such as the “La Nina” system, which has lead to areas of warm water developing in the western Pacific which has a different impact on weather systems across the world. In our case it is driving the Atlantic Jetstream lower south thus allowing unstable weather systems to dominate over Ireland and the UK.
June 07 was a washout; we are more than halfway through July and still the same, no sign of any letup either.

Mike
news.bbc.co.uk/1/hi/uk/6269046.stm
star.arm.ac.uk/press/2007/Weather_Jun07_pr.html
star.arm.ac.uk/press/2007/Weather_Apr07_pr.html




[albertw: url fix]

I've been following this right through the last few months as meteorology is a bit of a hobby horse of mine. As well as been driven south a bit (over 500 miles further than it should) the jet stream has not decreased in intensity as it normally does in the summer. The bad news is the only reliable medium term forecast models don;t offer much hope for a change in the intensity or position of the jet stream to allow settled conditions to become established. In short very bad news.

Still always the optimist, medium term models are far from totally reliable so there is still hope for August and Sept, which are my two favourite astronomy months.

So you don't think it's just because a few of us have bought new gear this year?

P.

Hi Dave
That's interesting information indeed, thanks for posting. You know I remember the so called summer of 1985 been a total wash-out, very frustrating for everybody, not just amateur astronomers. To cap it all we had one enormous lighting storm that I have not seen the like of since in this country, I wonder will this summer be a repeat of 1985, I for one hope not!

Paul
Yes, those that purchased new astronomical toys recently in this country are to blame, IFAS should pass a new law forbidding the purchase of astronomical equipment during the summer months.

Mike

Well I got my 20" during that great spell in the spring, so its not my fault. :lol:

I was watching the weather forecast on RTE on Sunday and they talked about this weeks weather, I thought the guy was going to start crying, to paraphrase him
"We'll have a high pressure forming over the country on Wednesday, but suddenly it morphs into a low pressure area over night and by Thursday will cause alot of rain"
I've never seen a chart like it !!.
I've also never seen so many thunder storms, there was 2 on Saturday and 1 today and the rain is monsoon like when it happens.
Summer, what summer ?????

If I remember correctly, something similar happened back in the 80s. We got a very wet summer for a couple of years. From what I recall, this can have a devastating effect in Africa whereby they get even less rain, resulting in drought.
Anyone able to confirm this?