Weather patterns across the country are fairly quiet for the moment. The shortwave trough moving out of the northwest has greatly decreased the amplitude of the ridge over the western US, helping to create a largely zonal flow pattern across the continent. Indeed, the only remaining storms of interest are dissipating: the Nor’easter affecting New England has now completely occluded, reducing precipitation to a few bands of scattered showers, and what used to be Hurricane Paula has now become nothing but a sheared apart area of weak convection between the Florida keys and Cuba.
Both the GFS and the NAM are forecasting a cut off low to pinch off from the jet-stream and build a ridge over the western half of the continent by the beginning of next week, as well as bring more rainy conditions to the southwest. Over the next week, this will likely help develop a fairly strong trough, which should bring cooler conditions, as well as a chance of rain in the middle of next week.
