Weather, Climate, and Other Science Topics
November 2022 started out with a bang. A very strong, westerly atmospheric river came through the area on Friday, November 4, resulting in extreme rainshadowing for the Seattle area but widespread flooding over the Washington Cascades. And entering the second week of November, some forecasts were calling for an early-season shot of lowland snow. The […]
Back in June, most extended forecasts were calling for near or slightly cooler-than-average temperatures for the Pacific Northwest with near or slightly below-average precipitation. It was a reasonable forecast; after all, we had just gone through one of the wettest and coolest springs on record, and a moderate La Nina was expected to persist through […]
October is a month of changes. Leaves turn from green to red, the weather turns from sunny to stormy, and the Mariners – at least for the last 21 years – hang up their cleats until the following spring. But not this year! We’ve just gone through one of the driest summers and early autumns […]
Fall is the most rapidly-changing season here in the Pacific Northwest. September generally starts off warm and sunny, with some of our highest fire danger of the entire year. But by late September/early October, temperatures cool substantially as our days rapidly become shorter, and typically, by the 3rd or 4th week of October, we start […]
We really lucked out with our fire season west of the Cascades this year. After one of the driest springs and hottest/driest summers on record, vegetation was incredibly dry and the environment incredibly flammable. Mercifully, the last half of August were cooler-than-average, and September was both cooler and wetter-than-average. And most importantly, neither had dry thunderstorms […]
The 2021-2022 storm season is knocking at our door. Take a look at the precipitable water imagery over the East Pacific and note the dramatic stream of subtropical moisture barreling towards the Pacific Northwest. This is technically an “atmospheric river,” a long, narrow filament of moisture from the subtropics (in this case, the East China […]
As of 8/2, Portland and Seattle have seen 48 and 49 consecutive days without measurable precipitation, respectively. Such dry spells aren’t unheard of for the summer – Portland’s record for consecutive dry days is 71 and was set in 1967, and Seattle’s is 55 and was set just back in 2017. But this anomalously long […]
11:00 pm Monday What a shift in weather we’ve seen over the last week! In my last blog on 5/31, I was talking about the potential for record heat in Portland on Tuesday, 6/1. Portland indeed set a record that day, hitting 95 and breaking the record of 94 set back in 1970. Perhaps even […]
April 2021 was by far the driest April on record for Portland, with only 0.39″ of rain falling at Portland Int’l Airport. This record-dry April occurred on the heels of a much drier-than-average March. As I explained in my last blog post, the entire Western US is experiencing drought conditions, and although the drought is […]
Many locations across the Pacific NW have seen their driest start to spring on record. As of April 22, Portland has seen a paltry 1.64 inches of rain since March 1, which is more than 4 inches below-average. According to the US Drought Monitor, such a dry spring has allowed the moderate drought conditions that […]
