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 […]
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 […]
According to a 2005 Gallup poll, Americans think November is the 8th best month of the year. November has a few things going for it; the Macy’s Thanksgiving Day Parade, increasingly competitive football games, not-shaving – but it seems most Americans believe these attributes are overshadowed by how dark, cold, and depressing the month is […]
This post was co-produced with fellow WeatherTogether blogger Mark Ingalls of Kennewick, WA. From Wednesday, 2/5 – Saturday 2/8, the Blue Mountains of Southeast Washington and Northeast Oregon witnessed a historic, unprecedented period of heavy rain and flooding. Like almost all of out wintertime river flooding events, this event associated with an atmospheric river – […]
Thursday, January 21, 2016 5:45 p.m. It’s been pretty wet today. I could explain it with satellite imagery, models, maps, and all that jazz (and I will), but all you really needed to do was to go outside and look at the size of the puddles, both on the road and off it. There was […]
Friday, November 13, 2015 12:57 pm Credit: PRISM Group and Oregon Climate Service. Retrieved from Reddit (yup!) One of the most fascinating things about Pacific Northwest weather is how much our local terrain influences our climate. Just in the state of Washington, we have two mountain ranges that get gobs of snow, a massive ocean off our […]
Thursday, October 20, 2011 12:38 P.M. Normally, I would not update the La Nina situation, but I saw something startling today. I was looking over this “Pacific Northwest Weather” group on facebook (btw, you should join it!) and somebody posted this graphic. I looked into it and discovered that the model above is the latest […]
Wednesday, October 19, 2011 5:41 P.M. Yesterday, I wrote about the variability of autumn weather in the Pacific Northwest and how we can see big changes in short periods of time. Today, we didn’t see a monumental change in the weather, but it definitely wasn’t like yesterday. As I was walking back from the IMA […]
Thursday, September 29, 2011 9:47 P.M. There isn’t much to talk about weatherwise… the models are still forecasting a warm day today with highs in the low to mid 70s and mostly sunny skies, with nice conditions Friday as well. We will see a weak system blow on through on Saturday, with cooler conditions Sunday. […]
Tuesday, September 21, 2011 1:08 P.M. I’m writing this from the Seattle Public Library since I am not at home right now. I’m actually waiting for ID from the Department of Licensing downtown, which will take a while. Anyway, the models have not changed their thinking much today. That big storm from that powerful wave […]
