Omega Block Again, Changes By The Weekend

We have talked about the omega block before on this blog, and yet again, we are in this pattern again. Before I post the upper level orientation of the jet stream....take a look at the national temperature map and how a pattern like this can generate such a stark difference in temperatures from the Great Lakes to the Southern Plains.

Looks more like a wintry map with the blue colors surrounding the Great Lakes, while here in Texas, its nice and toasty with temperatures in the 80s. Furthermore, due to this cold pool of air sliding down the eastern trough of the omega block, FREEZE WARNINGS have been posted for areas between South Dakota to North Carolina and Pennsylvania. Overnight, there is the potential that those areas will have temperatures below 32 degrees killing any vegetation.

We lucked out and we are in the center of this, equating to lovely weather for the next several days.

Notice how the jet stream is very wavy. We call this a meridional pattern in the meteorological world. When you see on an upper level map something that looks like this, then large scale weather systems will have trouble moving west to east swiftly as opposed to a jet stream that is straight (zonal). The bottom line is that we will continue to see similar weather right into the weekend.

However, when we look out in the Pacific Ocean, changes are not too far away.

The trough that you can see above will make a slow move onto the west coast and eventually into the Rockies before eyeing us here in the Lone Star State. Due to strong upper level winds over the Pacific, this will allow the trough to dig into the U.S. and help to break down the high and allow the weather to finally make a move east.

By the weekend, we will begin to feel more affects from this. The next image is a model output illustrating the jet digging into the four corners.

As the entire trough crosses the Rockies and into the Plains Sunday, we will heighten rain chances with the potential for severe weather late Sunday and Monday.

For more news and weather you can log onto: www.facebook.com/KAGSweather or www.facebook.com/KAGSTV. You can also check out our twitter feeds: @KAGSweather and @KAGSnews.