Cooler Weather in the East Comes at a”Steamy” Cost for the West.

These past few days have certainly felt like Fall for the eastern and central parts of the continental United States. This, however, is not the case for the western half of the nation.

As most of the Midwest, East, and South experience below-average temperatures, record heat bakes the western states of California, Oregon, Washington, and Nevada. Last week, daily record highs were set in the Californian towns of Oxnard, Camarillo, and Sacramento. Los Angeles’ temperatures soared into the triple digits last Wednesday. Cities in the Pacific Northwest have seen a record-number of 90-degree days this summer.

The stark difference in temperatures between the Eastern portion of the United States to the Western portion is due to a stream of high velocity winds in the upper levels of the atmosphere, known as the jet stream. The jet stream and its location is a major contributing factor to the weather experienced at Earth’s surface.

Late last week into this weekend, the jet stream dipped southward over the eastern and central states, resulting in the cooler, below average temperatures we have seen over these past few days. On the other hand, the jet stream has shifted to the north in the West, causing temperatures to heat up drastically.

The jet stream is expected to make a shift eastward next week, bringing warmer, more typical temperatures back to the Midwest.