Weather, Climate, and Other Science Topics
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 […]
More satellite eye-candy today! Take a look below (note – if you are receiving this post via email, you may have to go to the actual post to see the loop). One thing that immediately stands out is the powerful jet stream centered over NW Oregon/SW Washington. Note how much faster the high-elevation clouds in […]
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 […]
I was perusing the Facebook weather-sphere the other day, and KPTV chief meteorologist Mark Nelsen pointed out that the Blob had resurfaced dramatically over the past month in the Northeast Pacific. Taking a look at weekly SSTs, I’d say he’s onto something! Below are SST anomalies in mid February and mid March – you can […]
Monday, April 8, 2013 1:02 P.M. April is known for “showers and sunbreaks,” which might as well become a trademarked phrase around here since it is probably the most commonly mentioned phrase in Seattle, meteorological or otherwise. Imagine how rich the original creator of that phrase would be if news stations and the National Weather […]
Wednesday, October 5, 2011 12:12 P.M. I was looking through the UW 12z extended WRF-GFS, and in one of the model frames, I saw an “unsettled” pattern. Meteorologists always talk about unsettled weather. But what does unsettled weather really mean? “Unsettled” weather does NOT refer to nice weather. Most of you knew that, but I […]
November 7, 2009 7:16 P.M. What is instability? I often mention instability as the cause of post-frontal showers after the cold front of a storm system has passed in the PacNW, but what does it really mean for the atmosphere to be unstable? It means that the atmosphere has a steep temperature gradient. Our surface […]
