Weather slowdowns likely: Frequent
occurrences of showers and heavier thunderstorms this week will very
likely slow things down at a number of major airport locations
nationwide. Flights in and out of Chicago need to dodge rain during
the early and middle parts of the week. In Denver, thunderstorms
will likely brew up each afternoon and evening through Friday. In
the Northeast, flights into the three New York City airports will
run into potential problems starting on Tuesday. In Boston, rain is
likely during the middle part of the week. Much-needed rain will
come down in parts of the Southeast this week, but it will slow
things down in Atlanta and Charlotte. Thunderstorms are likely on
two occasions this week in Dallas and Fort Worth. On the West Coast,
late night and morning fog will delay flights in and out of San
Francisco and Los Angeles.
No boost from La Nina this year: According to researchers at
NASA, the Pacific Ocean phenomenon known as La Nina will not play a
factor in the upcoming Atlantic hurricane season. This comes as
great news after the costliest and most destructive season on
record, in 2005. La Nina refers to a pattern of unusually cold water
temperatures in the eastern tropical Pacific. This occurrence
contributes to droughts in the western part of the country and spurs
hurricanes in the Atlantic and Caribbean. This happens when
high-altitude jet stream winds are pushed farther to the north and
away from hurricane-forming areas. These jet stream winds can tear
the tops off of developing hurricanes, thus reducing their
intensity. An absence of the La Nina effect means those jet stream
winds will have an easier time migrating over hurricane-prone areas.
La Nina differs from El Nino, which acts to pull the jet stream into
areas of hurricane and tropical storm formation.
Man-made rain washes Beijing: In the wake of choking dust
storms that blanketed the city and surrounding areas with yellow
grit, Chinese officials reported that artificial rainmaking has
produced enhanced, heavy rainfall that has helped to clean up the
city of Beijing. Seven rockets were launched, each containing dozens
of silver iodide sticks, which officials say caused the heaviest
rains of the spring season. The science of cloud seeding is
controversial, and many doubt its effectiveness. However, China uses
the technique on a routine basis and often seeds clouds in an effort
to end droughts in the arid northern part of the country. The dust
storm last month dropped 300,000 tons of dust and sand on the
Chinese capital city and was the most severe storm in more than five
years. It was the 10th such storm to hit Beijing since February.
