There was lightning and heavy rain in central Puget Sound tonight due to a strong Puget Sound convergence zone--the radar says it all (see image, yellow is heavy rain).I watched the zone late this afternoon at the UW. Dark ominous clouds moved in from the north and a particularly dark line--associated with a shift from southerly to northerly winds--approached....
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The front made it in late this afternoon and early evening as shown by the infrared satellite photo above. Winds really increased this afternoon as the front approached as winds reached 20-25 mph in places. If you look carefully, you will see the mottled cloud pattern over the ocean...those are the classic postfrontal instability showers produced...
Nice Weekend and then Downhill a bit
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I returned on Friday from a workshop in Boulder, Colorado on developing the next generation weather prediction system. Such a system would be essentially probabilistic in nature---rather than giving a single answer as we do today. It really doesn't make sense to say the high temp at Seattle in seven days will be 67F--there is substantial uncertainty...
Big Daily Temperature Range and Foothills Heat
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Today was hot, with many locations getting into the mid and upper 80s, and some foothills locations reaching into the 90s (see map of temps and winds at 5 PM). Why the foothills? The reason is we had fairly strong easterly flow today with downslope flow and compressional warming of the air descending the slopes. (see Seattle profiler winds and temps...
Super-Ridge and Late September Heat Wave
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Last week I was in California...dropping my son off at college and visiting Yosemite Park. It was hot down there...even reaching 90F in the Yosemite Valley, but that is nothing compared to what is going to happen during the next few days--both down there and up here in the NW.Take a look at the temperatures of the past two weeks (see figure above)....
Should you take a chance on a season ski pass this winter?
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Do you feel lucky?Several of you have asked about the outlook for this coming winter...and specifically what it implies for the ski season. Should you buy that season pass at Snoqualmie Summit or Stevens?I hesitate to answer this question...I am already in big enough trouble with KING-5 for teasing them about my favorite Jim Forman....I don't want...
The Marine Air Cometh
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6 PM visible satellite imageIt has been a perfect weekend. I even finished painting my deck--ready for the storms of winter! But something is happening on the western side of the Cascades...the marine air is moving in. Notice the increase in wind speed? Or the change in wind direction? My wind chimes are ringing and the cool breezes are extraordinarily...
Extraordinary Weekend
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The red straight line is the average max, blue the average minThe past few weeks have brought temperatures at or below normal over western Washington, and above normal precipitation (see graph of temperature). This has radically reduced the fire danger threat over the west and knocked it way back east of the Cascades. But today and tomorrow summer...
The Enumclaw Tornado
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Picture courtesy of KOMO TV Enumclaw means "place of evil spirits" in the native American vernacular and it lived up to its name on Sunday: a tornado, which started around Bonney Lake moved eastward until weakening over the the town. According to an excellent report by the National Weather Service this was a confirmed category 1 storm with winds...
Forecast Error?
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Sometimes forecasts go wrong and sometimes the communication of details is inadequate...and today is a mixture of the two.Significant showers are mostly over for the western lowlands and bright sun is now features over the San Juans and even a sliver down Puget Sound. (see satellite image). There is almost nothing immediately offshore. And the...
The Weekend of Wet
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Cancel your hike on Saturday. Get a good book (hint...a suggestion is on the upper right of this page). Don't water your garden tomorrow. The weekend of wetness is coming. And the end of any serious threat of wildfires over the Northwest.But not tomorrow. A weak front is approaching right now (see image) and could bring some light rain to the...
