Weather, Climate, and Other Science Topics
Today’s weather pattern is a real treat to look at on satellite. We have marginally unstable air moving inland, and this air is just unstable enough to give crustal clear, bluebird skies over the ocean but heavy thundershowers over land. Why is this? The Pacific Ocean is only in the mid-50s, and the air over […]
We saw a little-known, but fascinating meteorological feature off the coast of Vancouver Island today… a little swirl in the clouds created due to differences in the strength of northwesterly winds along the coast of Vancouver Island. Speed shear in NW flow parallel to Vancouver Island spun up a nice eddy off the Vancouver Island […]
Sometimes you have to take a step back and chuckle at the situation we find ourselves in. The pandemic and social unrest are no laughing matter, of course. But when you hear that “Murder Hornets” have invaded the Pacific Northwest or learn that Mr. Peanut died in a tragic Nutmobile accident (no I’m not making […]
When I was trying to think of non forecast-related topics to blog about the other day, all the topics that came to my mind were depressing. I didn’t want to write about our worsening drought situation or the the high likelihood of an above-average fire season, and UW professor/blogger Cliff Mass had already written a […]
Though most of you know me as the local weather geek, I’ve also a bit of a economics buff and stock market junkie. I got my first taste of Wall Street at a young age, overhearing the market bits between news features on NPR in the back seat as my mom drove me to and […]
One of the most well-known aspects of influenza, more commonly known as the ‘flu,’ is that it occurs in yearly, seasonal outbreaks, with infections increasing as much as ten times from their summer minimums during the dark days of winter. This is also true with the common cold, which is not a specific virus like […]
As I was writing my previous blog on the 7/12/2019 Three Lakes earthquake, I kept getting sidetracked and found myself writing about the mechanisms behind earthquakes in general (perhaps that’s the reason why this blog is so late to get out!) And while there’s so much more I’d like to cover, like the different types […]
At 2:51 AM on Friday, July 12, citizens across Western Washington and beyond were awoken by an earthquake centered approximately 1 mile northwest of Monroe. With a magnitude of only 4.6, this was only a moderate quake and no damage was reported, but I’m sure more than a few glasses were shattered across the Puget […]
During our semi-annual switch on and off of daylight saving time (DST), there are always a flurry of articles that come out extolling the benefits of making DST permanent. Supporters point to fewer car accidents, less crime (apparently burglars aren’t early risers), an increase in economic activity, and perhaps most significantly for us here in […]
I know I’m pretty darn late to this blog – these wildfires have occurred two weeks ago. But I would be remiss if I did not at least write a little something about the devastating fires that have caused so much destruction over California. Two fires in particular – the Woolsey Fire near Los Angeles […]
