Weather, Climate, and Other Science Topics
October is a month of changes. Leaves turn from green to red, the weather turns from sunny to stormy, and the Mariners – at least for the last 21 years – hang up their cleats until the following spring. But not this year! We’ve just gone through one of the driest summers and early autumns […]
Fall is the most rapidly-changing season here in the Pacific Northwest. September generally starts off warm and sunny, with some of our highest fire danger of the entire year. But by late September/early October, temperatures cool substantially as our days rapidly become shorter, and typically, by the 3rd or 4th week of October, we start […]
In my last blog post on 8/30, I warned of a “late-season heatwave with offshore flow” that would “dramatically increase fire danger for the Pacific Northwest.” But when I wrote that, never in my wildest dreams did I imagine that we’d see a wind/firestorm the intensity of the one witnessed earlier this month. I work […]
This will be a relatively brief post because it’s a sunny, warm autumn weekend in the Pacific Northwest, and I don’t want to spend too much time inside on such a rare occasion! Let’s start with some obligatory eye-candy from the GOES-17. Besides being a huge asset to the scientific community, the GOES-17 has been […]
Sunday, September 13, 2015 5:19 pm If you ask an astronomer when summer ends, they’ll tell you “September 23.” That is the date of the autumnal equinox, the date when the day and night are approximately equal in length (the day is always a couple minutes longer because the sun does not set all at […]
Thursday, September 4, 2014 4:14 pm Custer’s Last Stand – Mort Kunstler I had to do some refreshing on my American history to remember what Custer’s Last Stand was. I did some research, and it turns out that this Custer guy really hated Indians, so he decided to fight some (specifically the Lakota, Northern Cheyenne, […]
Tuesday, September 17, 2013 5:26 p.m. The last (days of) summer. Source: Wikimedia Commons. Picture URL: http://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/File:Leonardo_da_Vinci_-_Ultima_cena_-_ca_1975.jpg From an astronomical, meteorological, and metaphorical point-of-view, His last meal is Friday night. Granted, Summer isn’t quite emanating brilliance like Mr. Christ in Leo’s little sketch, but just like Christ, He doesn’t have that much longer to live. I’ll […]
Thursday, August 29, 2013 12:00 midnight It’s raining, it’s pouring, my father, is snoring… It’s been a long time since it has rained. Sure, we saw some rain earlier this month, but with only a quarter-of-an-inch, things dried up extremely quickly. Our garden’s been doing fine because we have been diligent in watering it, but […]
Wednesday, October 19, 2011 5:41 P.M. Yesterday, I wrote about the variability of autumn weather in the Pacific Northwest and how we can see big changes in short periods of time. Today, we didn’t see a monumental change in the weather, but it definitely wasn’t like yesterday. As I was walking back from the IMA […]
October 18, 2011 1:27 P.M. Generally, the Pacific Northwest has gradual seasonal changes. Winter very gradually transitions into spring, and apart from a few thundershowers here and there, spring gradually shifts into summer. Summer also shifts gradually… from cool, cloudy days in June to nice sunny days in August. But there is one season in […]
