Weather, Climate, and Other Science Topics
Early autumn is usually pretty tranquil for the Pacific Northwest. The semi-permanent ridge of high pressure in the Eastern Pacific that keeps us so dry and mild through the summer is usually still robust enough to keep the storm track to our north, and any storms that do impact our area are generally pretty wimpy, […]
Snow is in the forecast once again, and this time, Portland should get more than an inch. But before I dive into the snow potential this weekend, let me first touch on the surprise snow that Portland saw Monday night/Tuesday morning. I have to admit, I was pretty jealous when I saw the surprise snowmaggeddon […]
By now, I’m sure you’ve all heard of the infamous “polar vortex.” While this term has been in the meteorological literature since 1853, it sprung into the vernacular during the 2013-2014 winter, which featured repeated arctic outbreaks that punished the Midwest and Northeast with record low temperatures. The first “Sharknado” movie was released in the […]
After a crazy-active week last week, there thankfully appear to be no major storms on the horizon for at least the rest of 2018. I say “thankfully” because although I am a storm fan, I’m also a meteorologist for a living coming off a week-and-a-half holiday vacation where weather was the last thing on my […]
While we’ve been cool and dry here in Western Washington over the past few days, areas of Southern Oregon and Northern California have been getting absolutely pummeled with snow! With modified arctic air already in place, a system that was still strengthening as it made landfall stormed ashore the Oregon/California border last night and dropped […]
As expected, the weak low that passed through from the NNW through Southwestern Washington last night brought scattered snow showers to parts of the area, with the highest amounts being in the Central Sound area between Seattle and Tacoma where a weak but very persistent convergence zone formed. There was an incredible gradient in snow […]
New model runs are coming in as we speak, and they show a similar scenario for late New Year’s Eve/New Year’s Day. Next week still looks like the coldest in several years, and there is low confidence in a moderate-to-major snowstorm on Friday, with model solutions agreeing on bringing a system into the area while […]
I must admit, it’s a little difficult coming up with varying titles for your blogs when you are simply blogging about the same thing. It’s not as difficult as forecasting snow in Seattle, but it’s definitely up there. Models are still adamant with a major pattern change beginning Saturday evening as a deep upper-level-low drops […]
Well, another day has passed, and my confidence is building that we will see a major and prolonged arctic outbreak for the first half of January. We’ve got a lot to talk about, so let’s get right to it. In my blog post last night, I talked about a massive ridge of high pressure centered […]
After two weeks of subfreezing temperatures, snowfall, and even sleet and freezing rain for folks living in Bellingham and near the Columbia River Gorge, a major pattern change towards warmer and wetter weather is in store for us. Although I like the cold (and LOVE the snow that sometimes comes with it), I’m excited to transition back to a much more active pattern that promises to bring gobs of snow to the mountains, heavy rain to the lowlands, and blustery winds just about everywhere.
