The summer of 2023 has delivered week upon week of brutally hot weather to much of the southern U.S.,  while much of the northern tier of states has escaped any long periods of  unusually hot weather. Whatever the locale, blame this summer’s unusual weather regime on the effects of a building El Nino jet stream pattern.  In fact, the westerly jet stream that has allowed upper level disturbances to proceed eastward from the Pacific Northwest to the upper Midwest, and eventually the Northeast has begun to intensify with the approach of the Fall season.  Thus, in the coming weeks, the weak storm systems that have remained well to the north will dive farther southward, reaching the southern states by mid to late September, bringing much needed rain to some regions that have seen little the past couple of months.

The same westerly steering current has diverted most, but not all, Atlantic tropical storms and hurricanes to the east of the United States, thus far.  However, hurricane season continues through November, and waters across the Gulf of Mexico and Florida are extremely warm.  Thus, locally spawned tropical systems could still affect these regions well into the month of October.