IEM Daily Feature
Tuesday, 28 January 2020

Peak Northerlies

Posted: 28 Jan 2020 05:33 AM

Winds were persistently out of the north on Monday and thus not much hope for warmer weather to get advected into the state. This time of year is about the preferred time of year for such winds as shown by the featured chart. A given wind speed and direction can be decomposed into its vector components and a climatology can be built from these values. The u-component value represents the west to east value while the v-component represents the south to north value. A negative v value indicates wind blowing from the north to the south. The sign and magnitude of the v component is a good first approximation to the temperature condition as cooler continental air is typically to our north and warmer air to our south. The optimism for spring really starts showing up in April and May as the v component value turns positive.

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Tags:   wind