Weather It Is (Springtime Storms)

Good Afternoon:

The weather outside is certainly beautifully sunny.  The nice weather goes perfectly with the bursting out of cherry blossoms.  The nice weather is courtesy of high pressure over the eastern Mediterranean, and warm southwesterly winds.   I wouldn't be surprised if folks make the mistaken assumption that our winter and/or early spring rains are a thing of the past (last winter's past, to be exact).

However, they just might be mistaken.

A very slow moving (nearly cutoff) low pressure area will establish itself in the eastern Atlantic over the next few days.  In the meantime, our high pressure system should give way on Monday to a trough of low pressure dropping down from eastern Europe.  This should end our short string of warm days and bring showers and a chill to the start of the week.

Then an unusual situation should develop.  Normally, warmer temperatures over Greenland (as indicated by a negative NAO pattern) usually leads to warmer weather here.  However, as the cutoff low over the eastern Atlantic intensifies, it will help to build a very strongly amplified ridge of warm air over Great Britain and far northern Europe.  The developing wind pattern should then favor an influx of cold air from the western regions of Siberia, which should deepen the trough in the eastern Mediterranean as the week progresses (showers continue), and possibly spin up a more potent storm as we turn the corner next week into Pesach.

It's all very complicated, but it does look like the latter part of Pesach should be more conducive for outdoor activities.  Of course, we have the advantage of looking at multiple forecasts over time, and if in the end it looks like the early Pesach storm will miss us, we can always change our forecast.

Not so those who sent the Israeli spaceship "Bereshit" (the first or beginning) to the lunar surface. There's really nowhere engineers can practice those lunar landings except on the moon -- and then it's not practice.  True, computers can be used to test out different scenarios, and to model spaceship behavior during the landing.  But, we don't need a computer to tell us that if the main engine fails on the way down it won't be a good ending.  It's sort of like a child that rides his/her bicycle down the stairs -- it's a great ride until it ends (but that is another story).

As you know Israelis are not very good at long term planning.  So (as stated aptly by a fellow blogger): "It's really fits the Israeli personality to drive 900 km/h to the moon and to say 'Walla!' (Oops)  I didn't pay attention, there's a moon in my way.  But, the main thing is that we arrived."

Regardless, new plans are being made, and the new (no pun intended) moon-lander is already being called "Vayikra."

Shabbat Shalom,

Barry Lynn