Weird Geeky Weather: Record High Pressure And A Weird Subtropical Storm

World record setting high barometric pressures is
occurring in Mongolia. Above is a winter scene from that
nation's capital, Ulaanbaatar. 

 Weather geeks are geeking out over a possible world weather being set in Mongolia of all places.  

There, it appears the strongest high pressure system on record is freezing the region out. 

Reports are coming in of barometric pressure of 1093.5 mb or 32.29 inches, according to aviation meteorologist Michael Adcock

For comparison, on average, the barometric pressure is around 29.92  inches. Readings of 31 inches are extreme and quite rare. 

The extreme barometric readings in Mongolia will have to be verified by the World Meteorological Organization to become official. 

Strong high pressure systems are most likely in the northern hemisphere during the winter as cold, dense air builds up in Arctic regions.  Sometimes, these particularly cold systems head south, bringing frigid air to the mid-latitudes. This is when you're most likely to break high pressure records. 

For instance, some of the highest barometric readings here  in Vermont - a little over 31.10 inches  -occurred with an Arctic high pressure system in 1920 that brought temperatures in the region to the minus 20s and 30s. 

True to form, it's frigid in Mongolia.  This nation is normally bitterly cold in the winter anyway.  Normal low temperatures this time of year in the capital Ulaanbaatar are around -10.  Low temperatures in this likely record strongest high pressure there are in the minus 30s. 

By the way, in and of itself very high or very low barometric pressure is not dangerous to humans. Only the weather associated with these phenomenon.  Obviously the frigid weather in these Arctic high pressure systems is dangerous.

Very low pressure is associated with intense storms, which of course tend to be risky. 

RARE SUBTROPICAL STORM

A subtropical storm named Oquira has formed in the Atlantic Ocean off the coast of Uruguay, South America. This area doesn't usually have much in the way of tropical storms. 

Tropical and subtropical storms depend on warm ocean water to develop. The South Atlantic between South America and Africa tends to be relatively chilly due to ocean currents, so this type of storm is rare off the coast of South America.   

It doesn't look like much but this is a satellite view of
Subtropical Storm Oquira off the coast of 
Uraguay, South America.  Subtropical storms
are rare in this region. 

Also, there tends to be strong upper level winds in the area off of South America, which discourages tropical storms from forming. 

This is the third subtropical storm to form in the Atlantic off of South America this year, which set the record for the most such storms in the region in a single year. 

This of course, is in the same year in which a record was set for the most tropical storms in the Atlantic north of the equator.  (As we know, tropical storms and hurricanes are much more common in the Atlantic between North America and Africa).

Subtropical storms are hybrids between regular old storms which have colder cores relative to the atmosphere around them, and tropical storms, which have warm cores. 

This storm - Oquira- has no chance of developing into a hurricane.  Only one storm in the South Atlantic has been known to become a full-fledged hurricane. That was Hurricane Catarina in 2004, which caused a lot of damage in southern Brazil.