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Hi everyone.  There’s still not a lot to talk about weather wise, just hot and dry.  We are beginning to see a few more afternoon thunderstorms and I think this trend will continue on into the holiday weekend as well.  Not everybody will see rain on the 4th, but there will be a few spotty thunderstorms and you may be forced indoors for an hour or so until the storm passes.  The big story continues to be the heat and it doesn’t appear to letting up for at least the next three days.  We have been at or above 97 degrees every day since June 18th.  Temperatures will continue in the triple digits through the fourth and look to cool a little bit early next week with better rain chance.
Now, on to the main subject of this blog.  I was looking through MSNBC’s webpage and came across on article on a different type of El Nino.  The reason this is important is that during an El Nino year, we typically see less hurricane activity.  An El Nino is traditionally the warming of waters in the eastern Pacific.  This creates a different type of storm pattern which in turn creates higher wind shear ripping storms appart before they can get started.  Most forecasters say we will be in a mild El Nino by the end of hurricane season which could have a profound effect on the number of storms we see.  But now researchers are saying this might be a year similar to 2004 when a hybrid type of el Nino formed called El Nino Modoki.  In this, the warm water develops further west out in the Pacific and we have a hurricane season that is above normal.  The last time this happened was 2004 in which we saw six major storms including Ivan.  The link to this article can be found here: http://www.msnbc.msn.com/id/31711796/ns/weather/.  We’ll have to wait and see, but I find this interesting.  Have a good fourth everyone.

Sarah