Weather, Climate, and Other Science Topics
What happens when you combine an unstable airmass, a mountain range, and daytime heating? You get scattered afternoon/evening thunderstorms that bubble up along the Cascade crest! We saw a ton of those today and they made for some really pretty views looking east from Portland to the Cascades. Today, a weak upper-level trough moved south […]
Remember the “Blob?” That awful patch of sterile, warm water from late 2013-2015 and again in summer 2019? Well, now we have the opposite of the “Blob;” a swath of cooler-than-average water along the West Coast extending all the way to Hawaii. What do you think we should call it? In the past I’ve called […]
April 2021 was by far the driest April on record for Portland, with only 0.39″ of rain falling at Portland Int’l Airport. This record-dry April occurred on the heels of a much drier-than-average March. As I explained in my last blog post, the entire Western US is experiencing drought conditions, and although the drought is […]
Many locations across the Pacific NW have seen their driest start to spring on record. As of April 22, Portland has seen a paltry 1.64 inches of rain since March 1, which is more than 4 inches below-average. According to the US Drought Monitor, such a dry spring has allowed the moderate drought conditions that […]
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 […]
La Nina years are known for bringing hefty snows to the Cascades. I still remember the La Nina year of 2007-2008, when I went skiing in the Alpental backcountry on Memorial Day with my mom. We had to skirt around waterfalls & avoid a few bare patches, but overall there was still a ton of […]
When somebody asks me the forecast and I want to give them a (good-spirited) sarcastic response, I’ll usually give them a forecast of “showers and sunbreaks.” I’ll say something like “we’ll see various types of weather tomorrow, with some locations seeing mainly sun, other locations seeing mainly rain, and others seeing a combination of showers […]
What beautiful weather we’ve had this week! I’ve been outside in shorts & a t-shirt the past few days, and let me tell ya – 60 degrees has never felt so warm before! The snowstorms of mid-February seem like a distant memory, though the widespread tree damage around my neighborhood is a sober reminder of […]
It now appears likely that Western Washington and NW Oregon will experience a series of significant winter storms from midday Thursday through Saturday evening, bringing snow, sleet, freezing rain, extremely strong east winds, and a prolonged period of subfreezing temperatures. I’ve been dying to write this post – I’ve been absolutely swamped the past several […]
I’m not a big beer drinker. However, I always have a few cans of Coors in my fridge in case some friends come over and want to crack a cold one. Why Coors? Because the mountains turn blue when it’s “as cold as the Rockies,” and since I have no stock in the taste, the […]
