Weather, Climate, and Other Science Topics
Everything seemed right for record high temperatures at Portland. We had offshore winds to prevent any cooling from the Pacific Ocean and a massive ridge overhead with insanely warm temperatures aloft. But with extreme heat comes extreme fire danger, and fires have erupted over the Pacific Northwest and British Columbia over the past few days. […]
This past Sunday, I headed up to Hidden Valley Camp, an old-school summer camp in the Cascade foothills of Snohomish County, WA for “Visitor’s Day,” a day where families of campers and other visitors can visit the camp and interact with campers and staff. I’m a longtime former HVC camper, camper-leader, and staff member (baker […]
The first major heat wave of the year is living up to the hype! Portland and Salem hit 98 and 101 respectively yesterday, and today, they simply switched highs. According to Mike Newman (a fellow weather buff from the Portland area), today’s high of 101 at the Portland Int’l Airport was just 1 degree below […]
By now, I’m sure most of you have heard about the record heat in California and the Desert Southwest. On Sunday, San Francisco obliterated its previous heat record of 86 degrees with an unbelievable 97-degree high, and yesterday, Palm Springs reached an egg-frying 122 degrees! Phoenix even had to cancel nearly 50 flights yesterday due […]
What a beautiful day it is today! With a strong ridge of high pressure centered just off our coast, we have bluebird skies, light winds, and very warm temperatures, with many places around the Portland metro area making it into the 80s! This ridge will move right over us for Memorial Day weekend, meaning our […]
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 everybody! In some ways, this summer and last summer are polar opposites. Last summer, we saw heat wave after heat wave throughout June and July, and this, coupled with a historically poor snowpack from the previous winter, led to water shortages throughout the region and extremely high fire danger throughout much of the […]
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! Today will be a very typical summer day for us in Western Washington, with morning clouds giving way to afternoon sunshine as the sun warms up the lower atmosphere and burns off this low marine layer. We will become warmer and sunnier as the week goes on due to a strong ridge […]
For the majority of July, we’ve been nice and seasonably cool here in the Pacific Northwest. We’ve been warming up over the past couple days, and by next week, we may have our first day of the month above 80 degrees! So the end of our “normal” summer weather is in sight. However, while we’ve […]
