THE WEATHER and CIRCULATION of SEPTEMBER 1957' Including a Discussion of Tropical Storm Activity EMANUEL M
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SEPTEMBEB1967 MONTHLY WEATHER REVIEW 315 THE WEATHER AND CIRCULATION OF SEPTEMBER 1957' Including a Discussion of Tropical Storm Activity EMANUEL M. BALLENZWEIG Extended Forecast Section U. S. Weather Bureau Washington 25, D. C. 1. COMPARISONWITH THE SUMMER MONTHS and precipitation. Only 56 of 100 stations in the United States changed temperature by one class or less compared The weather and circulation of the past summer was with a normal of 72; similarly, fewer than normal stat8ions marked byextreme heterogeneity. The month of June (20 instead of 35) remained in the sameprecipitation class was characterized by a mean trough through the central (last line of table 1). Part of the associated reversal in part of the United States with ridges along each coast [ti]. weather regime(figs. 2B and 2C) can be interpreted in A marked reversal in circulat,ion characteristics took place terms of the changes in 700-mb. height anomalies from between June and July [5] as a pattern more typical of August to September (fig. 2A). summer emerged with a trough off each coast and a ridge over theGreat Plains. The sharp circulationreversal 2. MONTHLY MEAN CIRCULATION AND WEATHER from June to Julywas followed by strongpersistence from July to August at middle Mitudes of the Western Rem- Thefairly well-defined temperatureand precipitation isphere [4]. patterns for t,he month of September (Charts I-B, 11, and The circulation experienced yet another oscillation in its 111-B) can be related quite well to the monthly 700-mb. transitionfrom August to September. Theplanetary height and height anomaly patterns (fig. l), despite the wave train became relnarkably akin to that of June 1957 changes in these patterns whichtook place duringthe [6], with a trough again in themiddle of the United States month (section 3).Temperatures as much as 5' F. and the coastal troughs of July andAugust supplanted by above normal occurred in thePacific Northwest and along ridges(fig. 1). The reappearance of the mid-continental the California coast under anticyclonic conditions, above trough was suggestedduring the latter half of August normalheights, andabundant sunshine (ChartVII). (15-day mean, not shown), when the eastcoast trough The warm temperatures in the Pacific Northwest during fractured, with the southern portion retrograding toward September represented an extremely sharp reversal from the lower Mississippi Valley. the cool weather experienced there duringAugust (fig. 2B). Despitethe large changesin hemispheric circulation Thiswarmth wasa consequence ' of upper-level ridge observed fromAugust to September (fig.ZA), blocking development along the coast (fig. 2A) and frequeslt anti- was still animportant feature of the circulation. The cyclonic passages in the vicinityof the Ilockies (Chart 1X) block that had beendominant in the westernCanadn- which kept the Northwest mainly in dry southerly flow Alaska area for the previous threemonths became a at sealevel. Warming was also experienced alorlg the strong ridge along the west c,oast of Canada, appearing as east coast, largelyas a result of anticy(4onic condit>ionsoff a closed High on many of the 5-day mean maps (fig. 3). the coast (figs. 1 and 2A). Blocking re-emerged in the Greenlandarea andin the The areafrom the Rockies to the Appalachians was cool Bering Sea, where700-mb. heights were 320 feet above (Chart I-B) as a consequence of frequentintrusions of normal and sea level pressures (Chart XI, inset) 7 mb. polarCanadian anticyclones (Chart IX). These anti- above normal. The high latitude block over Siberia in cyclones were steered rather well by the mean 700-mb. August [4] movedsouthwestward into western Siberia, flow from thenorthwest. This area wasone of below and the deep polar vortex of August filled greatly as the normal 700-mb. heightsand cyclonic flow at 700 mb. polar region became a seat of above normal heights. Northerly anomalous flow from the Rockies to the hfissiu- Persistence from August to September, while clima- tologically not quite as marked asfrom July toAugust [7], TABLEI.-Persistence measures of monthly mean anomalies in the United States from dugust to September is usually much stronger than it was this year (table 1). - The -0.29 lag correlation of 700-mb. height anomalies 1057 Normal' Random over the United States is an indication of the reversal -_--__ 700-nlb. lielght (hg correlatlon) ".. .. ~-..-0. ?Y +O. 33 0. M fhat took place. The lack of persistence in the circula- Temperaturc (0 or 1 cl:rss change, permnt) __..._._~_._~_ 56 72 60 tion was reflected in large-scale changes in temperature Precipitation (0 class change, percent) ____..._._._._.___ 20 35 33 -. " 'Normal persistence measures of 7Wmb. height based on 1033-1950 data, temperature 1 See Charts I-XVII following p. 328 for analyzed climatological data for the month. on 1942-1954 data, and precipltation on 1942-1950 data. Unauthenticated | Downloaded 10/11/21 09:01 AM UTC 316 MONTHLY WEATHER REVIEW FIQURE1.-Mean 700-mb. contours (solid) and height departures from normal (dotted), both in tens of feet, for September 1-30, 1957. Troughs for September are indicated by heavyvertical lines; position of trough in the Southeast in theperiod mid-August to mid-Sep- temher is indicated by a heavy dashed line. Dominant feature in the United States was the mean trough in the Mississippi Valley. sippi contributed tocool temperatures-averaging as much erly flowlowered temperatures by 2 classes (fig. 2B) in as 6' F. below normalin Wichita, Kans. The carving the area to the west of the Mississippi. The lowering of out of the trough in the Mississippi Valley is evident on temperaturesalong the Gulf coastand in part of the the anomalous change chart (fig. 2A), and the more north- Southeast,despite increased southerly flow,was partly the consequence of less sunshine than normal and many TABLE2.-A sample of theeffect of precipitation and cloudiness on temperature during September 1967 rainy days (table 2 and Chart VII), as record and near recordprecipitation fell in many areas. (Charts I1 and Percent-Tempera- III-B). This precipitationwas influenced greatly by Station precipi- po%ble a&%y tropicalstorms plus abundant Gulf moisture moving (inches) sunshine* I (" F.) inland. I--"-- Birmingham, Ala ........._.___.____.22 9.74 49 -1.3 Record rainfall in the South did not spread far enough Mobile, Ala ..._........_.....__~~~~~.21 13.61 "_.."_... -2. 2 Pensacola, Fla. .... ....._._..__.." -. 21 15.15 36 -1.3 northto ease thedroughty condition in parts of the New Orleans, La ...._..._....__._____26 10.90 36 "2.7 Jackson, Miss ...__......__.__________20 8.29 34 -3.4 Northeast.At Providence, R. I., which hadthe third Memphis. Tenn ___.._...____________17 7.48 45 -2.3 driestSeptember on record, totalprecipitation for the 'See Chart VII-B for percent of normal sunshine. first 9 months of the year was less than 18 inches, the Unauthenticated | Downloaded 10/11/21 09:01 AM UTC SEPTEMBER1957 MONTHLY WEATHER REVlEW 317 least amount for that periodin 125 years. A similar record was set in Boston, Mass., which had its driest 9 monthsin 140 years. The desiccation in parts of the Pacific Northwest and through the Plateau States (Albu- querquereported only a trace of rainfor September) was the result of anticyclonic circulation and dry north- erly anomalous flow aloft. Temperaturesalong the California coast were warm despit,e recordprecipitation amounts recorded in many cities. Theweather was prevailingly fairuntil the last few days of the month when a deep upper-level trough off thenorthern California coast broughtmoderate to heavy thundershowers with some hail to-this area. 3. TRANSITIONWITHIN THE MONTH Unlike the relatively stationary wave pattern of July and August, September was characterized by change dur- ing the month (fig. 3). The first 3 weeks showed a steady retrogression of themajor features of the circulation, followed by a rapidreversal in the fourth week.Con- comitantwith these permutations were changes in the temperature and precipitation regimes (figs. 4 and 5). FIRST WEEK In general, weekly temperatures averaged above normal from theDivide westward andfrom the Appalachians eastward, with below normaltemperatures reported in the rest of theNation (fig. 4A).Under a strong ridge (fig. 3A) temperaturedepartures as large as $6' to 4-7' F. occurredin Montanaand inland portions of southern California. Record maximum t'emperatureswere observed in Helena, Mont. (92' F.), Las Vagas,Nev. (108' F.),and RedBluff, Calif. (109' F. on Sept. 6 and 7). Las Vagas had 7 consecutive days with the temperature reaching or exceeding 100' F. Temperat,ures were above normal along the east coast as southerly flow prevailed east of thetrough in the Mississippi Valley (fig. 3A). Record maximum temperatures for the dat.e were estab- lished in Charlotte, N. C. (100' F.) and Columbia, S. C. (99' F.) on September 1. Heavy precipitation in the extreme Pacific Northwest was the consequence of anomalous onshore flow of mari- time Pacificair. A storm whichdeveloped inSouth - Dakota on September 1 (Chart X) deepened rapidly on &'IQURE 2.-Changes in monthly mean 700-mb. height departures from normal, August to September 1957. The isolines of anoma- the2d and 3d, and moved across the Northern Plains, lous height change (A) are drawn at 100-ft. intervals, with the accounting forthe precipitation observed in that area zero line heavier and the centers labeled in tens of feet. A large during the week and, in fact, for a large share of the reversaltook place from August to September, as reflected in monthly total there. Its passage was followed by a the number of classes the anomaly of temperature (B) and pre- series of cold outbreaksinto the United States, with cipitation (C) changed. Increased values are considered positive and decreasedvalues negative. Areas with increases of two or freezing temperaturesreported in northern and central more classes are cross-hatched;, areas with decreases of two or lowlands of Wisconsin on the 5th and subsequent dates morc classes arc stippled.