"Ring Of Fire" Pattern Keeps Plains Hot, New England Coolish, Other Areas Very Stormy

A schematic of the "Ring of Fire" weather pattern. Hot, dry condition
persist in the souther Plains, while frequent storms and disturbances
ride up and over the heat dome (along the blue arrows in image)

There's a common summertime weather pattern that has set up which will bring scorching heat to parts of the Plains, lots of stormy weather to the parts of the northern Plains and the soggy Middle Atlantic states, and gorgeous, but maybe too dry weather to us here in northern New England.

As The Weather Channel points out, the pattern across the country is known colloquially as the "Ring of Fire."  

That's because a dome of heat sets of in the middle and southern Plains. Weather disturbances ride along the north side of this dome, going northeastward over the Rocky Mountains, across the top of this heat dome in the northern Plains, then southeastward into parts of the Midwest and Middle Atlantic States.

Those disturbances often interact with the heat just to their south and form clusters of strong, sometimes severe storms, hence the term "Ring of Fire."

This pattern, as I noted, is pretty common in the summer. It can get particularly nasty if it stays in place for a long time. Under the heat dome, the ground dries out and drought ensues.  The areas getting hit by thunderstorms deal with local problems with wind damage, hail and flooding.

Also, if the pattern holds the thunderstorms keep going over the same area, so the flooding gets particularly bad in spots. I do worry about the upcoming days around the Middle Atlantic states. It is absolutely soggy there, and flooding has been a big problem in recent weeks. This pattern could make things even worse there.

In the short term, Iowa seems to be the target of the storms and flooding. At least for today and maybe tomorrow.

Depending upon how the "Ring of Fire" sets up, we here in northern New England can get caught up in the train of strong storms. This time, though, it doesn't look like that's in the cards, at least into the first half of next week.

The heat dome is well to our west, so we here in Vermont and surrounding states will get caught in a dry flow of air from the northwest. Temperatures through next week will be near normal (Highs most days in the 70s.) There will be a fair amount of sun, though weak cold fronts will come through from time to time to provide widely scattered, light showers.

But this is a dry pattern. We did, fortunately, get rain this week, but we could use more, and things are going to dry out more in the coming days. Certainly, we're not into any kind of drought, but we will want a wetter pattern later this month.