Naturalist Notes: April Showers Bring May... Awkward Weather Romances!
Ah, spring, the season of rejuvenation, blooming flowers, and...rain showers! Why does it seem like the heavens open up more frequently during this time of year? Well, let's take a journey through the whims of weather!
You see, springtime is when the atmosphere decides to play matchmaker, pairing up the warming air with leftover pockets of cold air from winter. It's like a quirky romance where opposites attract, resulting in atmospheric cuddles that inevitably lead to raincloud snuggles. And just when you think it couldn't get any more romantic, the jet stream returns from its vacation home in Mexico to the northern part of the continent.
The jet stream, a ribbon of high-speed winds flowing miles overhead, feeds energy into developing storms and also steers their paths. It “lives” at the boundary between neighboring hot and cold air masses. As the intensity of sunlight gradually increases in spring and warmth spreads northward, the jet stream lifts northward, too. It does this in order to stay at the edge of its hot-cold boundary home. As the jet stream moves north, it causes the warming air to mix with the last of the cooler, dry winter air, creating springtime rain and storms. Interestingly, if we have a slower warm-up in the spring, we will have fewer storms. Also, April is not our wettest month—June actually holds that title!
Top 20 Wettest/Driest Aprils in Southeast Michigan
Submitted by Cathy Wesley, naturalist, April 2024