Buresh

Buresh Blog: Hot summer continues..... El Nino update

July 17, 2019 — Daily updates on the tropics - "Talking the Tropics With Mike".....

Our summer of discontent continues on.  As of July 16th, Jacksonville has officially had 20 days at or above 97 degrees which is 2nd most to 1998 when we already had 24 such days.  That stat might "ring a bell" for long time First Coast residents as that was the year when Central & Northern Florida was literally burning up as wildfires roared deep into the summer as heat was combined with a very slow start to the wet season.  This year - while it's been hot - we've had relatively timely rains for the most part.

El Nino Update: It appears the weak El Nino - ongoing since late last fall/winter - is on its way out.  The map below shows some lingering warm water over the West Pacific but either near avg. or even below average over the Central & especially Eastern Pacific.

The forecast trend on the modeling - & it is JUST MODELS - is for a continued El Nino decline to neutral status into autumn.

This has potentially great implications on the hurricane season.  El Nino seasons are often accompanied by an increase in shear which at least limits the number of tropical systems.  However, a neutral state might imply at least a somewhat more active season - especially later in Aug. through early Oct. - which, afterall, is essentially the peak of the hurricane season.  Pardon this public service announcement: one should always be prepared well in advance for the hurricane season.

The week of July 15th marks the 50th anniversary of the amazing Apollo 11 landing on the moon & first walk by humans on the moon. Interesting Twitter feed * here *.  Action News Jax.com has an array of related articles/info./pics & video:

And - yes - I can clearly remember(!) watching the walk on the moon when I was 5 years old in the living room of my aunt's house on a black & white t.v. :)

And .... lastly... not weather or space related but fun none-the-less - the movie remake of "The Lion King".  Somehow I'm not sure it will live up to its billing, but my daughters & I have plans for a big night to take it in.  We've seen "The Lion King" on stage 7 times!  So we're not stopping now. :)