Tuesday, May 15, 2012

Outrageously Dry

An incredibly dry airmass has settled over northern Utah.  Currently at the Salt Lake International Airport (KSLC), the temperature is 88ºF with a dewpoint of only 3.2ºF.  Earlier, it was 90ºF with a dewpoint of -2.2ºF.  That's a relative humidity of only 3%.


I'm on the road with limited connectivity today.  Perhaps some of you can comment on the source of this incredibly dry air.

1 comment:

  1. Just got back from a trip to the Caribbean, so I noticed that it is dry. Looks like large-scale subsidence is making it very dry all over the western U.S. I think that the cold pool region off the coast of California and northwest Mexico is a major source of some very dry air masses over the western U.S., when all the moisture is confined to a shallow marine layer and it gets extremely dry above this due to very strong subsidence there. It seems like this effect is strongest during May and June, from what I have noticed by looking at 700-mb moisture fields. Don't know whether that is the major source of dry air this time or not.

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