Weather, Climate, and Other Science Topics
Summer 2022 is one that Pacific Northwest seasonal forecasters would like to have back. On the heels of a very wet and cool spring, and with La Nina conditions persisting in the Tropical Pacific, forecasters favored near or slightly below-average temperatures this summer. Instead, we’ve had well-above-average temperatures ever since late June, with an astonishing […]
7am Sunday As you’ve probably heard by now, the Pacific Northwest will experience a significant, prolonged heat wave this week. Excessive Heat Watches are currently in effect for the Willamette Valley, Northeast Oregon, and nearly all of Central/Eastern Washington, and the hot weather is expected to persist throughout the week before a very gradual cooling […]
A dangerous heat wave will impact the Pacific Northwest this week. It won’t be anywhere near as strong as the “Heat Dome” of June 26-28, but it will still bring record highs to large portions of the Pacific NW Wednesday – Friday, with record highs likely holding on for the inland Pacific NW on Saturday. […]
“Unprecedented” is an overused meteorological buzzword, but in the case of the June 2021 Pacific Northwest Heatwave, it is absolutely warranted. This heatwave shattered meteorologist’s preconceptions of what the upper-limit to temperatures is in the Willamette Valley and Pacific NW as a whole. The map of high temperatures recorded on Monday 6/28 defies superlatives. My […]
It was toasty this Memorial Day weekend! Portland hit 82 on Saturday, 84 on Sunday, and 88 today, According to chief KPTV meteorologist Mark Nelsen, this was the warmest Memorial Day weekend by average high temperature since 1992, which had an average high of 86 degrees over the three days and a peak of 93 […]
The warmest temperatures of the year are on tap for this weekend into early next week, and we’ll have super low tides to go along with the hot weather. This post ended up being kinda (dare I say, unnecessarily?) long, so here’s a quick summary. Expect a warming trend from now through Tuesday for the […]
Spring used to be my least-favorite season. Back in elementary and middle school, I grieved the transition to boring weather, the seasonal closing of ski resorts in the Cascades, and the departure of the windy, rainy weather that captured my imagination on many a winter day. I’d much rather stay up all night waiting for […]
The next two weeks look unseasonably calm. We’ll see a moderate system swing through on Friday, but other than that, our weather looks warmer and drier-than-average for the next 10 days as a strong, broad ridge of high pressure builds across the Western US. Given the boring weather ahead, I thought I’d do a quick […]
A lot has happened in the weather department since I wrote my last blog two weeks ago. Washington, Oregon, and California all declared a State of Emergency due to widespread wildfires, and the entire Western US saw one of the hottest August heat waves on record. This heat wave gave California its worst energy crisis […]
Hi all, I’m back after a hiatus! We really haven’t had much to talk about and I’ve been busy spending lots of time with my family, so blogging and weather updates have fallen by the wayside. However, we’re expected to see what could be the strongest heat wave of 2020 this weekend, and such blistering […]
