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| Record high barometric pressure in London, England is among the odd but mostly not dangerous weather events this week around the world. |
We've had record high pressure in Great Britain. It was at least potentially raining iguanas in South Florida because of a chilly spell, and what was the deal with those tornado warnings along the winter dreary coast of Washington State?
LONDON PRESSURE
The other day, London, England recorded its highest barometric pressure on record, which is impressive, since they've been keeping track of such things there for over 300 years.
According to Weather Underground's Category 6 blog, the mean sea-level pressure at Heathrow Airport was 1049.6 mb or 30.99 inches Sunday evening.
Record high pressures were also reported in France, Belgium and elsewhere on Sunday.
The record high pressure in London is really cool for weather geeks, but Londoners didn't exactly suffer under these condtiions. Record low pressure is associated with extreme storminess, but record high pressure usually brings fair weather.
In North America, near record high pressure is associated, at least in the winter, is usually associated with extremely cold Arctic outbreaks. But in England and western Europe, this record high pressure just brought fair and just relatively chilly air to the region
As Category 6 points out, though, if the pressure is high somewhere, it has to be low somewhere else.
When the air pressure is high, air is sinking in that spot. When air pressure is low, it's rising.
You read here the other day about that mammoth blizzard in Newfoundland. That was an extremely strong storm, with very low barometric. That meant a lot of air was rising. (Rising air also means lots of precipitation, so no wonder it snowed so hard in Newfoundland.)
But that rising air has to end up somewhere. What goes up, must come down, so all that air that rose near Newfoundland sank near the United Kingdom. With lots of sinking air the air pressure at the surface got to record high levels.
Another thing that happened is related: When there's a contrast over short distances between high pressure and low pressure, you get a lot of wind.
A storm hit Spain this week causing incredible amounts of wind and coastal flooding. The storm, which is of course an area of low pressure, in Spain wasn't too, too strong as storms go. But the contrast between the mid-strength storm in Spain and the very high pressure to its north brought the wind, tides and towering, destructive waves.
Video of that storm, definitely worth watching, is at the bottom of this post.
FLORIDA WIND CHILLS AND IGUANAS
A burst of chilly air came into Florida this week. Well, it least it was chilly for them. The Florida cold weather made a lot of news, not because it was so extreme in a historical context, but because these cold snaps have become increasingly rare in the Sunshine State due to global warming.
Early this morning, it got down to 40 degrees in Miami, which was the coldest it's been there since December, 2010. That sounds impressive, but the record low temperature for the date there is 30 degrees, so they didn't even get close to a record.
Still, 40 degrees is chilly for South Florida. The National Weather Service in Miami issued an unusual statement telling residents to not be surprised if iguanas fall from the trees in the cold.
When temperatures get into the 40s, iguanas stiffen up and basically shut down, so they'll fall from the trees. Some might die, but many if not most will recover. People were told to leave seemingly dead iguanas alone, because they'd likely recover if warmed up and maybe bite you.
The National Weather Service also issued wind chill advisories for South Florida yesterday, warning of air with wind that would make it feel like it was in the 20s and 30s outside.
To us winter hardy northerners, that seems laughable because a January day in the 30s is a warm spell. But people in Florida aren't used to such temperatures, so the advisory to stay well dressed to ward off hypothermia was smart.
Of course, the NWS used the standard language used all across the United States for wind chill advisories, so the statement also alerted people to the possibility of frostbite. That is impossible if actual temperatures stay above freezing, as they did in South Florida
PACIFIC NORTHWEST TORNADOES?
A series of storms off the Pacific Ocean has kept the western Washington and Oregon pretty wet this month, and that parade of wet weather will continue this week.
A particularly rembunctious storm came ashore in Washington yesterday, accompanied by rotating thunderstorms that had the potential to unleash tornadoes.
At one point late Tuesday afternoon, four separate tornado warnings were in effect for coastal Washington. There have been no confirmed tornado touchdowns in Washington so far but an EF-0 twister did hit coastal Oregon Tuesday, causing minor damage.
Tornadoes are rare in this area, though every once in awhile a strong Pacific storm can set off a tornado.
Here's a video of the incredible coastal waves in Spain caused by that storm and the very high pressure to the north:
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