Weather, Climate, and Other Science Topics
We knew that the majestic, rotating supercell we saw yesterday (Tuesday 5/29/2018) would be very hard to surpass, but Wednesday ended up far exceeding our expectations. Even as early as the night before, the Storm Prediction Center only had “marginal risk” for severe weather over the Western Oklahoma/NW Texas region. But in the morning, the […]
Before I was interested in meteorology, I was fascinated by volcanoes. Even as early as preschool, I would religiously watch my many volcano VHS tapes, and I’d make my parents read this book to me. I was particularly fond of the Hawaiian volcanoes because the lava was so colorful, so my 5-year-old self was beyond […]
Hi all! I was in Seattle this weekend for yet another fantastic Pacific Northwest Weather Workshop, and I was actually lucky enough to present on some research I had done identifying substantial drops in wind power production at Avangrid! This was my first presentation at any sort of scientific conference (I was on a panel […]
Within a few weeks, La “Nina” will be replaced by her cousin, La “Nada,” which is the moniker we’ve lovingly given to ENSO-Neutral Conditions in the Tropical Pacific, where we are neither in a La Nina or an El Nino state. “ENSO” simply refers to “El Nino Southern Oscillation” and is the broad term that […]
The title reads like an Onion article, but it’s true. A massive ridge of high pressure will move into western North America today and stay there for the foreseeable future, putting an abrupt end to our normally stormy weather. In the summer, such a ridge would give us extreme warmth, and this ridge will indeed […]
Folks west of the Cascade crest smashed record high temperatures today as a Pineapple Express continued to pump extremely warm and moist air originating from the Hawaiian Islands into the region. The fact that today was relatively calm and dry definitely helped, as we were able to get a little more solar insolation and didn’t […]
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 […]
Now that we are officially in autumn, I can hardly contain my excitement for storm season to get underway. Our transition from autumn into winter is fast and furious; in only 1 1/2 months, we’ll be in the stormiest period of the year, and there’s even a chance for lowland snow by then! No month […]
Monday’s solar eclipse was the most breathtaking natural event I’ve ever witnessed in my life. The transition from light to dark was frighteningly fast, and I was dumbfounded by the beauty and extent of the sun’s corona at totality. I was so taken aback by the experience and everything happened so fast that my memory is […]
There’s only 17 hours to go until the eclipse, and we are now within the range of the latest HRRRX (Experimental High-Resolution Rapid Refresh) model! This is exciting because the HRRRX takes the decrease in solar radiation due to the eclipse into account. Take a look at the predicted incoming solar radiation tomorrow and see […]
