There's talk of El Nino and idle speculation about global warming. But it remains in the realm of conjecture, awaiting another generation of meteorologists equipped with another generation of computers. I swing by the National Severe Storms Lab to check the jet stream's prognosis for the next few days. I peer over the shoulders of meteorologists, who scrutinize a pair of computer models that predict the flow over the next week. The other, the Navy Global Atmosphere Prediction System, suggests that a fairly strong jet stream will cut right across Tornado Alley toward the end of this weekend.
Eyebrows start dancing, but no one's really getting excited.
The accuracy of models tends to deteriorate after a few days, and no one seems to believe the Navy model anyway. It's just too optimistic. It keeps us from going crazy. Next dispatch Wayne Curtis is in the heart of Tornado Alley from now to early June, following stormchasers as the thunderclouds rumble through and writing about it here three times a week.