Weather, Climate, and Other Science Topics
Yes – the rumors are true. There is a chance of lowland snow tonight into Monday morning for Southwest Washington and Northwest Oregon. Some spots over Washington have already seen some snow showers this morning, but the main threat – and the focus of this blog – will be the snow potential Sunday night/Monday morning […]
Most La Ninas and El Ninos peak in December or early January. In fact, El Nino was first called “El Nino de Navidad” (translated from Spanish to “the Christ Child”) by Peruvian fisherman in the 1600s due to its tendency to peak right around Christmas. Like most El Ninos and La Ninas, the 2021-2022 La […]
Yesterday, I went for a stroll through through Azalea Way in the Washington Arboretum, a gravel path lined by cherries, azaleas, rhododendrons, and many other beautiful flowers, shrubs, and trees. Azalea Way has a long and storied history – it was first created by the Puget Mill Company in the late 19th century to transport […]
Meteorological spring begins on March 1st, and you can feel it in the air. After 1.25” of rain on 2/27 and an incredible 2.97” on 2/28, the weather since Tuesday 3/1 has been tranquil, with partly cloudy skies interspersed with brilliant bursts of springtime sunshine. I was walking around the International District yesterday, and when […]
On Friday, my brother and I traveled up to Stevens Pass and had an amazing time skiing in the sunshine. Conditions were a little icy to begin, but after 11am or so, the south-facing slopes on the backside of the mountain softened up a bit and we were treated to some amazing spring-like skiing. It […]
In a blow to professional meteorologists, a recent poll of 2,000 Americans showed that 58% of U.S. adults believe that Punxsutawney Phil seeing his shadow is an accurate indicator of whether there will be winter, with one quarter of Americans “strongly agreeing” with this statement. Unfortunately for America’s favorite groundhog, his forecasts verify even worse […]
Beginning around 1/14, a strong ridge of high pressure began to form over the Pacific Northwest, and although a few weak systems passing over it have brought a few sprinkles to Western Washington and Oregon at times, the weather is dead calm compared to the extreme mountain snow and river flooding we had to begin […]
Last week, and unbeknownst to each other, my brother and mother called me on the same day with the exact same question: “Why does Seattle have so many potholes right now?” My knee-jerk reaction was to rant against our city council and say it’s their fault, but it turns out there are several reasons why […]
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 […]
On Friday, Seattle was cut off from the north, the south, and the east due to flooding from the Chehalis River inundating I-5, extreme amounts of snow in the Washington passes, and all roads out of Vancouver BC being closed due to heavy snowfall. None of these individual events are unprecedented – the Chehalis spilled […]
