Weather, Climate, and Other Science Topics
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 […]
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 ran through some quick climate stats for Portland Int’l Airport, and since Saturday of Memorial Day Weekend (5/23), only 2 of 10 weekends (this includes Memorial Day) have had temperatures at or above-average, while 15 of 20 weekdays have seen at or above-average temperatures. And unfortunately for weekend adventurers, this week will bring more […]
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 […]
Yes, you read that right. Unless something goes horribly awry (say, a massive brush fire right next to the weather station at Portland International Airport), next week will feature the hottest weather for Portland until at least mid-April 2019. After January 1, Portland’s record high doesn’t rise above 80 degrees until April 7, and at this point, […]
Saturday, December 7, 2013 8:38 p.m. Well, I’m back! I’ve been through heck and back over the past few weeks with schoolwork, but I now have some time to write on this blog, and write I shall. OK, well that wasn’t really true. I actually have an atmospheric science 301 FINAL on Monday, and I […]
Saturday, November 11, 2011 1:59 P.M. Before I elaborate on what I think the weather will be like, I’d like to point out the strength of the front we saw yesterday. Yesterday’s front wasn’t big and didn’t produce a whole bunch of rain, but it was strong and consolidated, and it really packed quite a […]
Monday, October 10, 2011 9:34 A.M. Don’t you just love these National Weather Service graphics? It’s hard to find one single graphic that has so many explanations and a model picture, but the NWS issues them when there is some sort of significant weather occurring. Pretty awesome!!! Over the next few days, we will get […]
Friday, May 27, 2011 10:16 A.M. First off, as an addition to my last blog post, I thought I’d mention that Seattle gets tornadoes too, but they are very weak and are not part of supercell thunderstorms. Instead, they are called “cold-core” funnel clouds and come from localized areas of circulation within a thunderstorm. I […]
November 7, 2009 7:16 P.M. What is instability? I often mention instability as the cause of post-frontal showers after the cold front of a storm system has passed in the PacNW, but what does it really mean for the atmosphere to be unstable? It means that the atmosphere has a steep temperature gradient. Our surface […]
