Weather, Climate, and Other Science Topics
Since Christmas, the storm track has shifted south to California, bringing heavy rain and mountain snow to the Golden State. Parts of the Sierra Nevada have seen over 20 inches of liquid-equivalent precipitation, much of it in the form of snow. The most recent tempest occurred on January 4th and 5th. The image below shows […]
Earlier this week, South-Central Montana – and Yellowstone National Park in particular – experienced extreme flooding as an atmospheric river dumped several inches of rain onto a rapidly-melting, well-above-average snowpack, pushing the Yellowstone, Stillwater, and Clarks Fork rivers to record levels. The flooding forced the evacuation of 10,000 citizens and the National Guard rescued 87 […]
When I was younger, my mom and I would always explore Seattle and look for the biggest puddles to (safely!) drive through after heavy rain events. We knew all the key spots – Lake Washington Boulevard through the Washington Arboretum always had some rather shallow but very lengthy puddles, and there were also quite a […]
The “bomb cyclone” is here, and wow, does it look impressive on satellite! This looks like something you’d see in the Gulf of Alaska, not the Pacific NW. Best satellite pics of the GOES-17 era IMO. 943mb now! #bombcyclone pic.twitter.com/XE0mmmKSnY — Charlie Phillips (@GeoduckChuck) October 24, 2021 The storm dropped to approximately 942 mb, setting […]
It’s been a while since we had a significant, regionwide, winter windstorm hit the Pacific NW. The last major windstorm to hit the Inland Northwest was the 11/17/2015 windstorm, which brought an extended period of 60-70 mph gusts to Eastern Washington and devastated electrical grids around the region. Avista Corporation, a utility headquartered in Spokane […]
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 […]
Beginning late last week, the GFS (American) model began showing a transition to much colder weather for early-mid January. However, the normally-superior ECMWF (European) model did not, and given how far in advance the forecast was, it was a bit premature to throw the “s” word around. After all, we’ve seen the disastrous repercussions of […]
Meteorologically speaking, I can’t remember ever seeing a more boring November & first half of December in my life. I was looking through some climate stats, and the last time Portland saw at least a half inch of rain was on September 17, when 1.01 inches of liquid sunshine fell at the airport. The last […]
We will enter a much stormier pattern Wednesday that will persist through the weekend and possibly beyond, with moderate/strong systems affecting the area every 24-36 hours. Because these storms will be quick-moving and temperatures will be relatively cool, no flooding is expected and we will instead see significant early-season snowfall in the mountains. Not enough […]
With all of the heavy rain we saw over the weekend, many rivers throughout Western Oregon have reached flood stage and are continuing to rise. Here in Portland, I’ve never seen the Willamette as high, muddy, and debris-filled as it is now. Right now, minor or moderate flooding is occurring on the Siuslaw, Coast Fork […]
