A big change today. We’re going back to the same spot in the corner of west Texas that had the anomaly of at least -28C yesterday, with a precipitable water (PW) reading between 5 and 6kg. Today the PW reading has about doubled, to a bit over 10kg, and the average temperature for the day, along with its attendant anomaly, has risen by a full 10 degrees C. There is no way to explain the temperature increase, which requires a real source of added heating power, apart from the additional greenhouse energy effect supplied by the increase in total PW directly above this location. The snow on the ground, and its significant effects that were discussed yesterday, could not possibly have melted away. Did a mass of warm air move in from somewhere else? That would possibly be an option if it could be proven, but anyone who wants to make such a claim will have to supply the proof—and then do so consistently, not just here but everywhere else when a large and rapid temperature change has occurred. I think changes in PW can in large part be held to account for practically all rapid temperature changes, especially the biggest ones, swiftly, reliably and consistently. I go on to believe that science should accept as a fact the rule that, outside of the tropical zone, any doubling of total overhead PW will add enough energy to the surface to increase air temperatures by approximately 10C, aside from any offsetting forces of a timely nature that may be in play. (Subsurface absorption of incoming energy by ocean water is such a force and almost always in play.)
On the next three map images you will be able to see detailed signs of change in temperature, anomaly size and PW values in deep west Texas, all derived from contrasting images formed yesterday on maps having similar imagery but a different line of perspective (for reasons to be explained later). In order to do this skillfully you should be ready to magnify the images by up to 500% and keep making references to the far-off color coding scales. The coding technique was greatly improved not long ago but it still takes a considerable amount of time and practice to get the most accurate results from tightly detailed imagery.
Note the numbers under this globe—Earth’s average air temperature is the same today as on an average day thirty years ago! Even the Arctic is close, but unfortunately not for long.
Don’t miss the light brown shading that has just entered deep west Texas. Now we can turn our attention to the gigantic stream of PW rising out of the central Pacific, which is significant because of the incidental role it has played in this entire North American outburst of bad weather. The stream in virtually its entirety was originally gathered up and transported northward by basically the same enlarged jetstream wind that eventually barreled down the western side of the continent, as you can visualize from this next image:
What happened to all the moisture it was carrying? A major part of it (next image) appears to have rained out over the open ocean. Some of the rest wandered away to the north when the jet wind made the bend and headed south. Surviving parts ended up either as heavy rainfall in the Pacific Northwest or as snowstorms across many of the western states. There was just not enough left to generate more precipitation by the time the jet reached Mexico and southern Texas:
Carl