Subject: RE: Does COJ Know : Why don't clouds run out of moisture condorman - 2008-12-19 11:29 AM
I'm watching this weather pattern now hit me on the East Coast. This pattern has dropped snow all across the country. Why don't clouds run out of moisture? I mean, c'mon, wouldn't you have dropped all that moisture in the first few days? Does it reload mid-stream - I'm mean is there a moisture-filling station over Arkansas? Seriously, why don't clouds run out of rain (or snow)?
It's not clouds, it's flow. When the storm was over southern California, the counter clockwise flow of the upper level low pulled in moisture from the Pacific and it flowed all the way to about Vail, Colorado but couldn't make it over Vail Pass. When air moves upward (such as up the west side of Vail Pass ), it loses the ability to hold moisture producing snow. On the other side of Vail Pass, the moisture was pretty much gone from the air.
As the low moves NE it runs out of moisture until it can tap into the Gulf of Mexico. That's why snow in Colorado is generally so dry. Once it taps into Gulf moisture, that moisture will wrap all the way around the low producing a cold moist flow coming out of the the north causing snow in Nebraska, Kansas, etc. |