Thank Goodness Big Hurricane Aletta Missed Land: Next Up: Bud And More Scary U.S. Rain

Intense Hurricane Aletta off Mexico's west coast Friday. 

Hurricane Aletta in the eastern Pacific Ocean didn't really get anyone hot and bothered except for weather geeks like me.

It spun up off the western Mexican coast in recent days.

At midweek it blossomed overnight from a tropical storm to a Category 4 hurricane, with sustained winds of 140 mph. It's very unusual for a storm to intensify that fast, and of course there would have been real trouble had Aletta gotten close to land.

Thankfully, she headed west, away from land. All we got was the wow factor of seeing a hurricane intensify so fast and spectacular satellite photos and videos. Now, Aletta is getting into colder waters and stronger upper level winds. It's weakening, and should dissipate within a few days.

It's not weird for a hurricane to get going this early in the eastern Pacific. It IS odd, but certainly not unprecedented for a hurricane to get that strong so early in the season. It's the sixth earliest Category 4 storm in the eastern Pacific, notes Dr. Jeff Masters in his Category 6 blog.

Another eastern Pacific tropical storm seems almost certain to form any minute now. It will be named Bud and it could threaten Baja California with heavy rain, high surf and strong winds. It bears watching.

I like the name Bud for a tropical storm or hurricane but I still don't want it to hit land and cause havoc.

MIDDLE ATLANTIC RAINS, AGAIN!

Of more concern to people in the United States is a return to a weather pattern that brought destructive flooding during May to some areas in and near the Middle Atlantic States. and Midwest.

A generally west-to-east oriented weather front is forecast to waver back and forth over the central Plains, through the Tennessee and Ohio Valleys and into the Middle Atlantic States over the next week or more.

This will bring repeated rains, sometimes heavy to these regions.  The Middle Atlantic States had among their wettest Mays on record. Many areas flooded, like we saw in the Ellicott City, Maryland disaster. The Potomac River went into a high enough flood so that a fly fisherman was spotted in the Washington DC National Mall as the river's waters invaded that area.

Other areas, as far west as Iowa, have been suffering through this weather pattern, with flooding reported there, and more expected.

Evacuations due to flooding in Mason City, Iowa this week.
Via NorthIowaToday.com

I do think we will see more news of destructive and possibly flash floods in the areas I just mentioned over the course of  the next 10 days or so.

This weather pattern, with the wavering front well to our south, is and isn't perfect for us here in Vermont, either.

On the perfect side, it has been happily contributing to a long series of Goldilocks, Chamber of Commerce Days (Not too hot, not too cold, and plenty of sun for the tourists to enjoy.)

This trend will continue for the next few days at least.

But we are drying out, and very little rain is forecast here in Vermont over the next week. Some precipitation might fall toward the end of next week, but at this point it's looking way less than impressive.

We are still quite far from any worries about drought, though areas of abnormally dry conditions are starting to pop up in parts of New England, according to the U.S. Drought Monitor.

If this trend continues through the summer (a really BIG if), we could be looking at some problems with lack of water by August or so. Fortunately, weather patterns that start in May typically don't last through the whole summer.