We are going from almost winter-like straight to mid-summer in the space of a few days. A ridge of high pressure will strengthen across the west coast, pumping our high temperatures into the 80s Wednesday in the valleys, and continuing into the 90s by Friday. By the first of next week, some of the warmer communities could see near triple-digit temperatures. Even with the heat, the flow pattern remains stable enough to keep the chance of thunderstorms at a minimum.

Bob, a golfer from Las Vegas, wondered why high pressure brought good golfing weather while low pressure brought the opposite. The answer isn’t as straightforward as I would like, but in a nutshell, it has to do with what highs and lows do with vertical movement of air. Clouds, and thus rain and other storminess happen when moist air is lifted upward. Lows at the surface cause air to converge, and up is the only place that air can go. So to over-simplify things: lows cause rising air, which in turn causes rain. Conversely, highs do just the opposite, causing air to descend, clouds to clear, and six-irons to travel straighter.

 

 

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