Weather, Climate, and Other Science Topics
After the warmest first half of November on record, snow has finally reached the Cascade passes. An upper-level trough directed cool, unstable air into our region last night, giving us showers (particularly in the mountains) and a Puget Sound Convergence Zone that enhanced snowfall around Stevens Pass. Over the past 24 hours, Snoqualmie Pass has […]
Good evening everybody! Today was beautiful! Most locations around Western Washington got into the upper 70s to lower 80s, and some areas east of the crest got much warmer! The Dalles was 96 degrees at 5 pm, but Buoy 46026 off the Columbia River was only 58. The Pacific Ocean sure cools things off! As […]
Good morning everybody! As the above graphic shows, we have a giant ridge of high pressure in the Eastern Pacific right now. This is a very typical August setup, and tends to give us cloudy mornings, sunny afternoons, and a healthy seabreeze on the coast. For the next few days, it looks like we’ll have […]
Wow, what a change in weather we have had! From the wettest winter on record to two consecutive weeks with temperatures above 70 degrees! Our transition from autumn to winter is swift, but our transition from winter to spring usually takes a little bit more time. It certainly hasn’t taken much time so far! Last […]
Tuesday, January 19, 2016 1:42 pm Average precipitation anomalies from El Niño events. Credit: NOAA For winter-weather lovers and skiers in the Pacific Northwest, an El Niño forecast sounds like a death sentence. Such a forecast conjures up visions of no major windstorms, hardly any lowland snow, below-average snow in the mountains, and a “death […]
Monday, November 23, 2015 1:19 pm Well, I got pretty busy this past week and the weekend after putting off all my work to deal with that windstorm. It wasn’t quite as big as I thought it was going to be, but it was still pretty windy around the area with 45-70 mph gusts throughout […]
Monday, November 16, 2015 4:44 pm It’s looking more and more like a significant windstorm may be in the works. The models are not as bullish about this storm as they were yesterday morning, but they are still showing very strong winds with widespread power outages possible. Charge your devices tonight! Water Vapor Image Taken […]
Sunday, November 15, 2015 1:00 pm Wow, we have a lot to talk about. It’s been a very long time since the weather has been this exciting! Credit: WSDOT Flickr Page First off, the rain has died down around Western Washington and most rivers have receded below flood stage. The Snohomish River at Snohomish, The Skokomish […]
Thursday, November 12, 2015 9:53 am Everybody talks about atmospheric rivers. Atmospheric river here, atmospheric river there. And while the “atmospheric river” term is certainly useful and is used in scientific literature, it also comes across as a bit of a euphemism. It sounds so nice and tranquil, like a stream flowing through the heavens, […]
Wednesday, November 4, 2015 6:02 pm A view of foggy Snoqualmie Pass from Chair 2, Alpental. Credit: ME! When I talk about snow in the Cascades, I often tend to focus on Snoqualmie Pass. This is probably because this is where I have skied most of my life (particularly Alpental), but Snoqualmie Pass is also […]
