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Bob Harrington · **U.S. Record Temperatures, 6 October 2007**

(Eric Swanson) wrote in news:feg57q$ral$1
@news04.infoave.net:

In article . com,
says...

Eric - These look like weird data to me, or at least interesting data.

We have dozens of new record high temperatures, right? Really a
pretty stunning list.

Wait until you see the list for October 7 and 8. I haven't finished
with those yet, but you can go to the USHCN link and see most of what's
happening. The reports of the Chicago Marathon should give pause, as
many runners became ill and one died from the heat.

But we also have a list of more than a dozen places reporting new
record low maximum temperatures -- most of them in Utah and Nevada, it
looks like.

Do you have any proposed explanation for why this dichotomous pattern
exists?

Well, my back-of-the-envelope scenario is that the tropic to pole
circulation is stronger than usual this year. Also, the relatively
great warmth may be related to the lack of hurricanes so far this year
in the Gulf of Mexico. For whatever reason, the warm air is pushing
further to the north, as seen in the locations of most of the records
in the northern U.S. The colder air in the return of the circulation
is moving further southwards all the way to southern California, making
for a few records along the way.

A few...? Look at some of those record low maxima records... I believe the
drive-by media phrase is "smashed!"

There certainly has been aan amplified trough-ridge pattern over the
continental US of late; the Pacific Northwest has seen very cool and damp
weather out of the Gulf of Alaska while the eastern side of the US has been
getting its atmosphere overnight expressed in from the Gulf o' Mexico.

Seattle weather went almost overnight from summer to mid-to-late autumn in
late Sept. Kinda hope it keeps up and we see a little extra snow this year.

Bob ^,,^