I learned long ago that when it comes to the weather, it’s impossible to please everyone!
Comments on my Facebook page are perfect examples: some people love this heat, while others are proclaiming: “I’d rather a snowstorm, than this.”
We’ll see!
An extended period of heat and humidity is not unusual for us; it’s the result of an annual visitor, the Bermuda High.
The Bermuda High is an area of high pressure that lives over the Atlantic Ocean, in the vicinity of Bermuda.
It’s a ridging high that builds from the Azores High, a large sub-tropical centre of high pressure.
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This high-pressure block exhibits an anti-cyclonic circulation – more simply put, a clockwise wind. It pulls warm, moist, tropical air from the Gulf of Mexico.
This often leads to many weeks of hot, humid weather with little or no relief from the southeastern U.S. all the way to Ontario and Quebec.
Depending on the exact location of the meandering high, it can do the same for us here in Atlantic Canada.
The system doesn’t spend all its time vacationing near Bermuda.
The high moves over the Azores in the cooler months, allowing storm systems like nor’easters to work their way up the eastern seaboard during the winter and early spring.
When that happens, I’m sure the comments on my Facebook page will be just as entertaining as they are now.
- Read more Weather University columns.
Cindy Day is the chief meteorologist for SaltWire Network.
