Weather, Climate, and Other Science Topics
Last night, a rare, catastrophic tornado outbreak occurred over portions of the Southern and Midwestern US. As of Saturday afternoon, 34 people were confirmed dead, with an estimated 75-100 deaths across Missouri, Illinois, Tennessee, and Kentucky and potentially 50-70 deaths in Mayfield, Kentucky alone. Most deaths were due to a series of tornadoes – or […]
Last Wednesday, the United States Bureau of Reclamation (USBR), a government agency that oversees water resource management in the Western US and Great Plains, announced that they would close the main irrigational canal that draws from Upper Klamath Lake for the 2021 irrigation season. This canal, known as the “A” canal in the USBR-sponsored Klamath […]
What happens when you combine an unstable airmass, a mountain range, and daytime heating? You get scattered afternoon/evening thunderstorms that bubble up along the Cascade crest! We saw a ton of those today and they made for some really pretty views looking east from Portland to the Cascades. Today, a weak upper-level trough moved south […]
When somebody asks me the forecast and I want to give them a (good-spirited) sarcastic response, I’ll usually give them a forecast of “showers and sunbreaks.” I’ll say something like “we’ll see various types of weather tomorrow, with some locations seeing mainly sun, other locations seeing mainly rain, and others seeing a combination of showers […]
I’m writing from the front porch of an old fishing cabin in Sekiu, a small fishing village along the Strait of Juan de Fuca approximately 15 miles ESE of Cape Flattery. I’m being treated to an incredible – and unexpected – lightning show from some strong thunderstorms to our north over the Strait and Southern […]
I’m committing one of the cardinal sins of weather blogging here: putting a high-impact, but uncertain, forecast in the title of a weather blog. I truly believe that this is an unethical practice, and that those who do it are trading a little part of their journalistic soul in exchange for a few more clicks. […]
I’m a big George Carlin fan, and one of my favorite routines is his comparison of baseball vs football. The thesis of his routine is how baseball is lighthearted and fun, while football is war and nothing less. One example he gives is how a football game will proceed no matter the weather, while a […]
In the wake of the incredible thunderstorms many locations around the area saw Thursday, I thought I’d write a review on the amazing and very uncommon weather we saw last week. In the interest of time, I will spend relatively little time reviewing general thunderstorm knowledge, but if you are interested, you can read a 4-part […]
So many things to blog about… so little time. Today was by FAR the warmest day of the year for the Pacific Northwest. The Portland Airport hit 81 degrees, making this year the first year since records began back in 1940 that we’ve had an 80 degree high before a 70 degree high. Of course, […]
Good morning! The majority of us didn’t see nature’s pyrotechnics last night, as the atmosphere never really destabilized enough for the predicted thunderstorms to fully develop. However, as the graphic above shows, there was an incredible amount of lightning further east, especially into Idaho and Montana. We are starting out with overcast skies this morning […]
