Stalled pattern: extreme coasts, mild Midwest

Our weather patterns continue to be stuck these days. This time Minnesota is on the drier and milder side of things. The east and west coasts are getting hammered by storms.

For now our blissful Minnesota weather pattern continues.

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Extreme rains hammer Detroit and Washington, D.C.

I have lived my entire life and worked my entire career here, and I have never seen as widespread a flooding event. I also remember some individual intense thunderstorms that flooded ONE freeway. But I don't ever remember EVERY freeway being flooded out.

-- Paul Gross WDIV-Detroit meteorologist

Monday was the second wettest day(and nearly the wettest day) ever recorded in Detroit.

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The rainfall totals were staggering as several inches of rain centered on the Detroit metro area.

By Tuesday, the slow moving front triggered flash floods in Washington, D.C., and Baltimore.

Baltimore recorded the second wettest day ever on record yesterday with over 6 inch rainfall totals. Some areas picked up close to 10 inches.

Western heat wave

Meanwhile out west it was heat. We don't often hear of heat waves in Seattle, but that's exactly what happened Monday as an unusually hot high pressure ridge pushed temps into triple digit territory. Heavy rains followed Tuesday.

Cliff Mass elaborates.

The temperatures on the West side were amazing on Monday, with a number of stations getting to between 95 and 100F.  Many daily records have fallen.

Take a look at the 24-h max temperatures ending Monday evening.  Some temperatures above 100F in the interior of SW Washington and a few 100s even on the east side of Puget Sound.  Sea Tac got to 96F!

High amplitude jet stream pattern

The reason for all the weather madness on both coasts while Minnesota basks in sunshine? Another stalled "high amplitude" blocking jet stream pattern. The middle of the United States sits under a quiet ridge, while deep low pressure systems hammer the edges with heavy rains.

Forecast: San Diego, with corn dogs

The Minnesota State Fair is just one week away. How did that happen?

Our fine weather holds through Thursday, then chances for scattered storms arrive by Friday. I don't buy the National Oceanic and Atmospheric Administration's Global Forecast System notion of rain each day (see below), but scattered storms will be around Friday and Saturday as dew points climb back into the slightly muggy 60s.

The opening days of the fair still look potentially steamy, with a cold front cooling things off as we move through the first weekend. Scattered bouts of rain return to the forecast.

In other words, pretty typical State Fair weather fare.