Thursday, February 14, 2013

A Look Back at Valentine's Day 1977 "Heat" Wave

Today and tomorrow will feel like record highs in the valley floor. However, looking back to 1977 you can see just how warm we got up to on Valentine's Day.



(KRDD is the Redding Airport, records only go back
to 1986)

Here's our current set up over the next 24 hours.  Giant ridge of high pressure over the West Coast.  500 mb height levels will approach 576 dam)  Which is pretty high for this time of the year.





Now look back to 1977.   This image above is reanalysis form NOAA for Feb. 14th 1977.  We also saw a large West Coast ridge.  500 mb height levels were likely closer to 578-580 dam!

Today's 850 mb temperatures (about 4,000ft in elevation) are running near 9 degrees Celsius.  Bringing that air mass to the surface of the valley floor with condensing and warming, we are likely going to see some upper 70s today.  






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