Easterly wind effects

We have a high pressure to our northwest and with the clockwise flow they have, we are going to have winds from the east for the better part of this week. This isn’t the typical flow that we see in the midlatitudes. From an upper-level perspective, we’re going to be seeing persistent conditions with warm, dry conditions. This is the same high pressure that prevented the remnants of Hurricane Francine from impacting our area, and tropical depression eight off the coast of the Carolinas would have a chance of pushing this high pressure away if it strengthened, but it most likely will not. The high pressure will continue to sit over Canada for a little bit, moving out for a couple of days with a disturbance later this week, before another very impressive ridge sets up to our northwest once again. The next major trough in the upper atmosphere, likely coming early next week, will hopefully get rid of the stagnant weather pattern.

With a wind pattern from the east expected for most of this week, a lot of Michiana won’t notice too much of a difference but if you tried to beat the heat this weekend a little closer to the coast, you probably noticed something odd for this time of the year. Not only are you at the beach in mid-September, but the waves aren’t that high. Fall is usually a transitional period between the relatively lower waves of the summer months to higher wave heights in the winter months. But instead of seeing the waves get higher we’ve seen similar conditions. This is all due to the easterly flow that we are seeing. The waves on Lake Michigan are mainly formed by the wind, and usually we see the winds making their way all the way across the lake before they hit the shore in Michiana, making the waves higher here then in Wisconsin and Northern Illinois. Now the opposite effect will be happening and with these lovely temperatures and low wave heights, there are going to be some great beach days this week.