ORLANDO, Fla. – It’s been very cold in your Florida neighborhood for the last couple of days. The winds make it a tad colder to the skin as well, if you weren’t bundled up appropriately.
Winter storms have been the name of the game for a solid stretch of time now. However, southern California is on the entirely opposite end of the weather spectrum right now.
Santa Ana winds are currently cranked to the max for that general area. A trough of cold air extending south almost parallel to the West Coast is helping provide the optimal wind direction for a phenomena called “downsloping.”
During my time in Air Force Weather, we dealt with downsloping on thousands of occasions. The mountains, coupled with a favorable wind gradient, get this ripping like there’s no tomorrow.
Winds above ground level are naturally much stronger than what we feel down at the surface. This is due to a few different variables, and I won’t get too heavy on the science for the sake of the topic at hand here.
But when higher-level winds interact with the tall mountainous peaks of the Rockies, especially given the huge descent in elevation between the coastal SoCal area and the high desert, that’s when things get fairly “turbulent.”
These strong upper-level winds can hit the mountain chains perpendicular to their orientation. Simply put, a string of mountains can extend north to south. If we see winds hitting these mountains in a west to east direction, or vice-versa in the Santa Ana’s case, the backside of the mountains act like a slide and allow those strong winds to mix down to the surface.
Now, slowly but surely those downsloping winds will begin to back off for Southern California, and hopefully their wind and fire reprieve can begin. However, once that begins to occur, it’s all hands on deck for the Deep South and the Southeast.
It seems crazy to imagine, but what’s spawning the fires in SoCal will then transition into Florida’s next big winter storm that’s forecast to rock across the South and up our rain and wind chances this weekend.
The Disney Marathon is slated to take place alongside the arrival of our next batch of cold air and rain. The Gulf Coast states to our immediate northwest will have to do battle with wintry conditions, including ice pellets, freezing rain and snowfall.
And before you ask... no, this won’t make it down to Florida despite what others have been trying to wish-cast.
It goes to show, Mother Nature can be fierce and incredibly dynamic. From dry fire weather, to heavy rainfall, to generating a winter wonderland.
Stay safe!
