Weather, Climate, and Other Science Topics
Atmospheric rivers, like the one over Western WA right now, are strong, narrow, and often slow-moving streams of mild, moist air stretching from the subtropics to the midlatitudes. When this air slams into terrain like the Cascades or Olympics, it is forced to rise, resulting in even more clouds and even heavier rain. The strongest […]
With a strong atmospheric river underway, I thought I’d take some time to delve a little deeper into these phenomena. In this blog, I’ll cover the basic characteristics of an atmospheric river, how these atmospheric rivers form, and a brief summary of how they relate to the Earth’s heat budget. Throughout the blog, I’ll use […]
Wednesday, October 26, 2011 12:23 P.M. Mt. Rainier is one of the most prominent peaks in the world, and it is certainly the most prominent one in the contiguous United States. Because it is so prominent, it can influence clouds, rainfall, snowfall, and even sunlight for miles. Mt. Rainier gets some especially interesting cloud formations. […]
Wednesday, October 6, 2010 Many people would be surprised to find out that the Pacific Northwest gets some of the biggest floods in the world. The reason why it is not common knowledge is because the places that flood are usually sparsely populated (like Snoqualmie or Concrete) or have no people at all (like many […]
