Weather, Climate, and Other Science Topics
Howdy everybody! I’m back after a bit of a hiatus – with our boring weather of late and the first image ever taken of a black hole coming to light last month, I’ve been more focused on the cosmos than the clouds as of late. But with record-breaking temperatures on tap today through Saturday, I thought […]
Well… it couldn’t last forever. The upper-level trough that pushed through the region last Friday ushered in a much cooler and cleaner airmass to give us a refreshing end to the workweek and start to the weekend. But as a ridge strengthened over the area on Saturday and onshore flow decreased, high-elevation smoke started to […]
I don’t know about you, but I thoroughly enjoyed our sudden switch to cooler weather on Saturday. I was in Seattle for a weekend of boat chores and band practice, but even more fun than pressure-washing our boat was having all my windows open Friday night and feeling a strong, westerly, marine breeze suck all […]
With our record dry summer and the hottest August on record for many places around the Pacific Northwest, we’ve inevitably had an incredibly active fire season and the smokiest summer I can ever remember seeing west of the Cascade Crest. The latest major blaze – the Eagle Creek Fire – came uncomfortably close to home, […]
Everything seemed right for record high temperatures at Portland. We had offshore winds to prevent any cooling from the Pacific Ocean and a massive ridge overhead with insanely warm temperatures aloft. But with extreme heat comes extreme fire danger, and fires have erupted over the Pacific Northwest and British Columbia over the past few days. […]
This past Sunday, I headed up to Hidden Valley Camp, an old-school summer camp in the Cascade foothills of Snohomish County, WA for “Visitor’s Day,” a day where families of campers and other visitors can visit the camp and interact with campers and staff. I’m a longtime former HVC camper, camper-leader, and staff member (baker […]
It’s been a boring past few weeks for Pacific Northwest weather bloggers. Portland, Seattle, and many other places around the Pacific Northwest have now gone a month without any measurable precipitation. For much of the past month, a large ridge of high pressure has been plopped right over us, shunting the storm track to the […]
Friday, August 28, 2015 11:36 pm Most of our wildfires are actually started by lightning, but that doesn’t mean you can have a tannerite party during a red flag warning., Hey everybody! I’m finally back from summer camp, and while I had an amazing time there, I am very excited to sleep in my own […]
Friday, August 9, 2013 1:35 P.M. Flash Flood in Gobi, Mongolia in 2004 – Uploaded by Wikimedia User QFL247 It would seem as though the current watches and warnings posted around Washington contradict each other. How can you be at risk of forest fires and flash floods at the same time? Rain mitigates the damage done by fires, […]
Friday, August 9, 2013 2:09 A.M. (Yikes!) I was absent the past week for a fishing trip in Canada and knew that Washington was expected to receive some rain. At the time I left, forecasts were calling for over an inch of rain in areas of Western Washington and perhaps up to FIVE INCHES in parts of the […]
