- Sep 13, 2002
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Would like to thank the cities of DeWitt, Camanche and Clinton for taking it on the chin to once again spare the metro QC from storms.
The Quad Cities Weather Bubble.....
- Thread starter torbee
- Start date
not gonna lie - growing up in the qc area, i'd heard about this before - and love that torbee is keeping the myth alive.
i don't truly think anyone has come up with a scientific theory here (yes, i said theory, megachurchers), but it does seem to be a theme worth investigating. best i can come up with is the river valley area, combined with the change in direction of terrain. could it be possible?
i don't truly think anyone has come up with a scientific theory here (yes, i said theory, megachurchers), but it does seem to be a theme worth investigating. best i can come up with is the river valley area, combined with the change in direction of terrain. could it be possible?
along with the river direction change, i believe just the heat from the city causes smaller storms to go around the QC.
i was tracking the storm yesterday and it's path was to go slightly north of the QC. i don't believe the "bubble" did much protection yesterday.
i was tracking the storm yesterday and it's path was to go slightly north of the QC. i don't believe the "bubble" did much protection yesterday.
It was 30 degrees cooler here in NE Iowa than it was in the QC when those storms were rolling thru.
Posted from Rivals Mobile
Posted from Rivals Mobile
- Sep 13, 2002
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Terry Swails actually had something on his blog last year about this phenomenon. I posted it on HROT, but the search archives apparently don't go back that far. I do know that it had nothing to do with the river valley.
St. Louis is said to avoid weather, due to the arch secretly being a anti-weather rod or something. There literally have been times where weather heading straight for us has suddenly diverted south, or split around the city.
- Sep 13, 2002
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I found the article!
It's called the "dry slot".
Details:
A 'dry slot' is an area within a storm system on the south/southwest flank, that is 'dry' relative to the surrounding area. It is usually devoid of precipitation or has very little. Technically the dry slot is defined as the cloudless region between the head of a low pressure and the tail of the cold front that extends from it. It happens quite often in the central part of the U.S. on the south and southwest side of the storm where dry air is pulled into the circulation. Below you can see a dry slot that extends into a storm over the Great Lakes all the way to Texas.
Radars are also great at picking up dry slots. In this radar image Dec 11-12th, 2010 a blizzard was dumping nearly 2 feet of snow in southern Minnesota. The Quad Cities in the center of the image sets squarely in the dry slot high and dry with the storm overhead
The Quad Cities is one of the most favored areas of the Midwest for dry slots. Time and time again I have seen storms go directly overhead dumping heavy snows northwest and pouring rains southeast. It greatly limits precipitation and frustrates me so much that I have labeled the Quad Cities the "black hole of weather".
Just like these amazing features, the QCA draws the storm energy in and diverts the weather around it. It's incredibly predictable with winter storms, especially those with marginal cold air.
It's called the "dry slot".
Details:
A 'dry slot' is an area within a storm system on the south/southwest flank, that is 'dry' relative to the surrounding area. It is usually devoid of precipitation or has very little. Technically the dry slot is defined as the cloudless region between the head of a low pressure and the tail of the cold front that extends from it. It happens quite often in the central part of the U.S. on the south and southwest side of the storm where dry air is pulled into the circulation. Below you can see a dry slot that extends into a storm over the Great Lakes all the way to Texas.
Radars are also great at picking up dry slots. In this radar image Dec 11-12th, 2010 a blizzard was dumping nearly 2 feet of snow in southern Minnesota. The Quad Cities in the center of the image sets squarely in the dry slot high and dry with the storm overhead
The Quad Cities is one of the most favored areas of the Midwest for dry slots. Time and time again I have seen storms go directly overhead dumping heavy snows northwest and pouring rains southeast. It greatly limits precipitation and frustrates me so much that I have labeled the Quad Cities the "black hole of weather".
Just like these amazing features, the QCA draws the storm energy in and diverts the weather around it. It's incredibly predictable with winter storms, especially those with marginal cold air.
