How can it be sunny and rainy at the SAME TIME?
/WEATHER WEDNESDAY! It’s not often you have to match your rain boots with your sunglasses but this is common June weather! 🌦But how can it be sunny and rainy at the SAME TIME?
We’ve seen a lot of this recently here in the Okanagan Valley and here’s why:
This often happens when we have cooler air at the upper levels. Often you will hear me talk about an upper low, and that’s exactly what it describes - an area of cooler air that is present in the mid- troposphere near 5000m.
Not only can it rain and be sunny all in the same afternoon, but there may be instances when you need both your sunglasses and your umbrella!
These upper lows that develop over our region in late spring or early summer make the atmosphere unstable. How quickly the air temperature changes as you go up in the atmosphere determines the level of instability. Rapid changes can lead to sudden downpours, mixed precipitation or even thunderstorms.
When you get a break of sun, the sun heats up the surface of the earth. This creates an even greater difference in temperature between the lower part and the upper part of the atmosphere - making the conditions very changeable and unpredictable.
This is often why we see convective showers in the afternoon - because the sun’s heat can cause showers to develop!
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