I had to turn the heat on in my car this morning. I needed to defog my windshield as the rain and humidity where causing the windshield to mist over. This is typical in late September, but not now. It is near the end of July, the height of summer.
Have you also noticed that the summer is colder and wetter than usual? For a flying operation like the Ottawa Flying Club, the weather has a big impact. Apart from the benefits of Instrument training in actual IFR conditions, very few of our students can get practice time when there are low clouds and nasty weather. So far this summer, our hours flown are significantly below what we would historically expect.
There may be a reason beyond bad luck. I was passed this link to a Weather Channel Report by Chris St. Clair where he explains that the bad weather is based on a phenomenon called the North Atlantic Oscillation. According to the report:
The North Atlantic Oscillation is a variance in the location of a large area of strong and stable high pressure. For the past many weeks it has developed over Greenland and the Labrador Sea.
The emergence of the North Atlantic Oscillation has lead to a block in the usual, steady west to east migration of unsettled low pressure across our continent.
Simply, the cool rainy weather is stopped once it gets to the Great Lakes Basin because it cannot get past the big, stable high pressure over the western Atlantic. Not until the high pressure, that has manifested itself further east, relaxes will there be a change in the pattern.
Certainly this morning, a quick check of the surface analysis chart shows a ridge of high pressure running from Newfoundland up to Baffin Island. Keep your eye on it and hope it goes away soon.
