TALLAHASSEE (WTXL) - These last several days have been pretty gloomy. Why is that? It's a meteorological phenomenon known as "Cold Air Damming" which only happens when a number of key ingredients come together perfectly.
First, there is a large high pressure system that stretches from the Great Lakes to New England. Winds orient themselves clockwise around high features, so that blows a cold, northeasterly breeze into our region. Secondly, a low pressure system pushes through the southeast and situates itself off the Carolina coastline in the open Atlantic. Because winds go counter-clockwise around lows, we then tap into a lot of low to mid level moisture in the atmosphere. This isn't just from the storm system which is hundreds of miles away from our area, but also from the cool Atlantic waters as well.
Now, if it were only for these few features setting up, we'd have some cloudiness and cool conditions, but the clouds would disperse with the ample heat the sun provides during the daytime and we'd at least see a near-normal warming trend. However, since the Appalachian Mountains orient themselves from central Alabama northeastward through the Mid-Atlantic states, they act as topographical barriers which don't allow the moisture to thin out and disperse elsewhere. You can kind of think of them as walls that keep all the moisture and cool air confined from the mountain range to the frontal system just off the coastline while continually funneling those conditions southwestward as the winds push from the northeast.
So because of all these features coming together, we were abnormally cool on Thursday. In fact, we only reached 73° officially at Tallahassee Regional Airport. This was the coolest high temp we've seen since May 2nd, nearly five months ago! Because these features are weakening on Friday, we'll see the clouds thin into the afternoon and temps will finally bump back to near seasonal conditions in the low to mid 80s.
