# Strange weather **URL:** \ **Category:** Factual Questions\ **Created:** [September 23, 2004, 10:00pm UTC](https://boards.straightdope.com/t/strange-weather/265764 "2004-09-23T22:00:17Z")\ **Posts on this page:** 9\ **Page:** 1
**Author:** ![bummerboy2](https://avatars.discourse-cdn.com/v4/letter/b/22d042/32.png) [@bummerboy2](https://boards.straightdope.com/u/bummerboy2)\ **Post date:** [September 23, 2004, 10:00pm UTC](https://boards.straightdope.com/t/strange-weather/265764/1 "2004-09-23T22:00:17Z")
What is with this strange weather pattern. It’s like a comma. It’s a band of clouds that start at Texas and come up to South Dakota (my state) and curves in a circular motion. [Here is a satellite photo](http://www.nws.noaa.gov/sat_tab.php) Is it caused by Ivan? ---
**Author:** ![Hanna](https://avatars.discourse-cdn.com/v4/letter/h/b3f665/32.png) [@Hanna](https://boards.straightdope.com/u/Hanna)\ **Post date:** [September 23, 2004, 11:08pm UTC](https://boards.straightdope.com/t/strange-weather/265764/2 "2004-09-23T23:08:30Z")
I’m not sure what caused it, but I live on the MN/WI border, right where that white stripe is. I left school this afternoon as that was moving into the area. The outside temperature (according to my car’s gauge, which is accurate) read 79º when I left school - it was warm and sunny. As I drove home I saw the huge black clouds of this front coming in from the west, and I watched as my temperature gauge dropped 17º in the fifteen minutes it takes for me to drive home. It was freaky. By the time I got home it was pouring out and chilly. ---
**Author:** ![W.Fikere\_Tomba](https://avatars.discourse-cdn.com/v4/letter/w/f9ae1b/32.png) [@W.Fikere\_Tomba](https://boards.straightdope.com/u/W.Fikere_Tomba)\ **Post date:** [September 23, 2004, 11:19pm UTC](https://boards.straightdope.com/t/strange-weather/265764/3 "2004-09-23T23:19:09Z")
According to [this page](http://ww2010.atmos.uiuc.edu/(Gh)/guides/mtr/cyc/sat.rxml), that’s a “midlatitude cyclone”—a cyclone being a low-pressure area around which winds move counterclockwise (in the northern hemisphere). Hurricanes are very powerful tropical cyclones, but I doubt that your weather was caused by any hurricane. I think what you’ve got is actually a pretty common weather pattern. ---
**Author:** ![rowrrbazzle](https://sea3.discourse-cdn.com/straightdope/user_avatar/boards.straightdope.com/rowrrbazzle/32/414_2.png) [@rowrrbazzle](https://boards.straightdope.com/u/rowrrbazzle)\ **Post date:** [September 23, 2004, 11:25pm UTC](https://boards.straightdope.com/t/strange-weather/265764/4 "2004-09-23T23:25:01Z")
As previously posted, it’s a common low-pressure area. A hurricane is a very low pressure area with high winds and rotates in the same direction. Other than Ivan also being a low pressure area, there’s no connection. [![](http://weather.rap.ucar.edu/model/ruc00hr_sfc_wind.gif) ](http://weather.rap.ucar.edu/model/ruc00hr_sfc_wind.gif) You can see your low pressure area on this map, and you can see Ivan in the lower left corner. ---
**Author:** ![bughunter](https://avatars.discourse-cdn.com/v4/letter/b/aeb1de/32.png) [@bughunter](https://boards.straightdope.com/u/bughunter)\ **Post date:** [September 23, 2004, 11:37pm UTC](https://boards.straightdope.com/t/strange-weather/265764/5 "2004-09-23T23:37:46Z")
> [@W. Fikere Tomba](#): > > I think what you’ve got is actually a pretty common weather pattern. Yep… in the wintertime, the local weatherbimbos refer to that as “a cold front” or a “low pressure system” or even a “winter storm.” That one is just particularly well defined. Probably because the temperature gradient across it is greater this time of year. ---
**Author:** ![Hanna](https://avatars.discourse-cdn.com/v4/letter/h/b3f665/32.png) [@Hanna](https://boards.straightdope.com/u/Hanna)\ **Post date:** [September 24, 2004, 12:02am UTC](https://boards.straightdope.com/t/strange-weather/265764/6 "2004-09-24T00:02:19Z")
> [@bughunter](#): > > Yep… in the wintertime, the local weatherbimbos refer to that as “a cold front” I was going to call it a cold front. :o > [@rowrrbazzle](#): > > You can see your low pressure area on this map, and you can see Ivan in the lower left corner. Isn’t that Jeanne, rather than Ivan? ---
**Author:** ![Squink](https://avatars.discourse-cdn.com/v4/letter/s/b5e925/32.png) [@Squink](https://boards.straightdope.com/u/Squink)\ **Post date:** [September 24, 2004, 12:16am UTC](https://boards.straightdope.com/t/strange-weather/265764/7 "2004-09-24T00:16:07Z")
> [@rowrrbazzle](#): > > As previously posted, it’s a common low-pressure area. It’s a very pretty example of one though. They don’t usually have tails that long, but we’ve had 3 or 4 similar ones this summer. ---
**Author:** ![rowrrbazzle](https://sea3.discourse-cdn.com/straightdope/user_avatar/boards.straightdope.com/rowrrbazzle/32/414_2.png) [@rowrrbazzle](https://boards.straightdope.com/u/rowrrbazzle)\ **Post date:** [September 24, 2004, 12:50am UTC](https://boards.straightdope.com/t/strange-weather/265764/8 "2004-09-24T00:50:11Z")
> [@Boscibo](#): > > Isn’t that Jeanne, rather than Ivan? You’re right. My mistake. ---
**Author:** ![barbitu8](https://avatars.discourse-cdn.com/v4/letter/b/839c29/32.png) [@barbitu8](https://boards.straightdope.com/u/barbitu8)\ **Post date:** [September 24, 2004, 1:15am UTC](https://boards.straightdope.com/t/strange-weather/265764/9 "2004-09-24T01:15:29Z")
It’s also the lower right corner, not the left corner. If you click on the 24-hour rotation in the first link, you can see the front moving across the nation from west to east. **rowrrbazzle** > [@](#): > > A hurricane is a very low pressure area with high winds and rotates in the same direction. True, as far as it goes, but that is not a very good definition. One of the distinguishing features of a tropical cylcone, as opposed to a baroclinic cyclone, is that the lowest pressure is concentrated at the center. If you look at a baroclinic cyclone, you will not see the concentrated lowest pressure at the center. There are other characteristics of a tropical cyclone, primarily that it gets its energy from the latent heat energy of warm waters.