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</o:shapelayout></xml><![endif]--></head><body lang=EN-US link="#0563C1" vlink="#954F72" style='word-wrap:break-word'><div class=WordSection1><p class=MsoNormal>Dear Phellow Phriamers, <o:p></o:p></p><p class=MsoNormal><o:p> </o:p></p><p class=MsoNormal>I seem, knock wood, to be back in the saddle again. <o:p></o:p></p><p class=MsoNormal><o:p> </o:p></p><p class=MsoNormal>I have a question which I hope one of you will address, Roger? <o:p></o:p></p><p class=MsoNormal><o:p> </o:p></p><p class=MsoNormal><b><i>Is the present weather pattern truly a North American monsoon?</i></b> I can see that the situation has some features of a monsoon, and I can absolutely see why NWS is not interested in dickering with the public over fine points: It’s summer, it’s raining, that’s really all we need to know. Still, I am in New England at the moment, where we are experiencing a bout of cool weather, many days rainy. I associate your Santa Fe’s monsoon with New England’s hot humid weather, which occurs when the Bermuda High builds backwards into the SE US. The thermal low over the desert SW now becomes the “seam” between the Pacific and the Atlantic subtropical highs, and moisture pours in from Gulf of Mexico and the Sea of Cortez.<o:p></o:p></p><p class=MsoNormal><o:p> </o:p></p><p class=MsoNormal>The present situation is a classic omega block, no? It presumably arises more from global circulatory forces and less so from regional heating differentials. It bears a greater relation to what happened in the Pacific NW last summer, than to a classic Southwest US Monsoon, eh? <o:p></o:p></p><p class=MsoNormal><o:p> </o:p></p><p class=MsoNormal>While (if?) I have your attention, can you give me some way to think about the relative effects on air density of adding water vapor and adding heat temperature? Some sort of thing like, 3 degrees of dewpoint equals 1 degree of temp. It’s almost assuredly not linear. <o:p></o:p></p><p class=MsoNormal><o:p> </o:p></p><p class=MsoNormal>Nick <i><o:p></o:p></i></p><p class=MsoNormal><o:p> </o:p></p><p class=MsoNormal><o:p> </o:p></p><p class=MsoNormal><o:p> </o:p></p><p class=MsoNormal style='text-indent:.5in'><o:p> </o:p></p><p class=MsoNormal><o:p> </o:p></p><p class=MsoNormal>Nick Thompson<o:p></o:p></p><p class=MsoNormal><a href="mailto:ThompNickSon2@gmail.com">ThompNickSon2@gmail.com</a><o:p></o:p></p><p class=MsoNormal><a href="https://wordpress.clarku.edu/nthompson/">https://wordpress.clarku.edu/nthompson/</a><o:p></o:p></p><p class=MsoNormal><o:p> </o:p></p></div></body></html>