Weather, Climate, and Other Science Topics
Well, another day has passed, and my confidence is building that we will see a major and prolonged arctic outbreak for the first half of January. We’ve got a lot to talk about, so let’s get right to it. In my blog post last night, I talked about a massive ridge of high pressure centered […]
Hi everybody! I’m back home in Seattle for the holidays, and while it’s great to see my family, dog, and friends, a very large part of me wishes I was still in Portland. While we’ve had a cool, cloudy, and relatively non-eventful weather day, the entire Willamette Valley is under a Winter Storm Warning for […]
We did it! After suffering through a completely snowless 2015 and a very wimpy 2014, we finally got a widespread lowland snow event for Western Washington and Northwest Oregon. And it’s not over yet… snow is still falling in the foothills and further north in Skagit and Whatcom counties where temperatures are cooler. Let’s first […]
Good morning everybody! Snow just started falling in Portland a few minutes ago (around 9:37 for my neighborhood). The flakes are very dry and light and are getting blown this way and that by strong easterly gusts through the Columbia River Gorge. Speaking of gusts, let’s take a look at what Crown Point is doing […]
It now appears as though Portland will experience a significant winter storm tomorrow, with gusty winds, a few inches of snow, and a changeover to sleet and freezing rain in the evening. Over Seattle, I believe we could see a trace to two inches of snow Thursday night before precipitation changes to rain early Friday morning, […]
We saw some snow yesterday, and although it didn’t stick in most places, it certainly gave it the ol’ college try. With all the frantic talk about a few flakes flying through the air, it’s easy to forget that some models were advertising a more widespread and significant lowland snow event on Thursday. Let’s open […]
Good evening everybody! I hope ya’ll are having a great Sunday thus far. I know I have. Why, you ask? It’s been snowing like crazy in the mountains. Stevens Pass reports 20 inches of new snow over the past 24 hours, while Snoqualmie pass reports 19. All of this has made for some very dicey […]
Well, the new model runs are in, so I thought I’d give another forecast on the snow (or lack thereof) expected for Monday morning. Each individual model has changed little over the past several runs, but the different models show vastly different scenarios. The American model (GFS) paints a couple inches on the higher hills […]
It has been 735 days since we saw snow in Sea-Tac Airport. Since our last snow, same-sex marriage was legalized nationwide, Donald Trump became president, CO2 levels permanently passed the 400 ppm threshold, and Michael Phelps won five more gold medals. There is a chance our snow-less streak could finally come to an end this week. But […]
FINALLY! After being in El Nino conditions off-and-on since autumn 2014, we are finally solidly back into the “neutral” area, and it is looking increasingly likely that we will be in a La Nina regime for the latter half of 2016 into 2017. With the exception of Nino 4, all Nino regions have near-average […]
