There was magnificent cumulus and cumulonimbus today over our region. The reason? A very large change in temperature with height associated with very cold air aloft, coupled with warming at low levels from the increasingly powerful sun. Here is a plot (sounding chart) of temperature and dew point at 5 PM this afternoon at Forks, on the NW Washington...
Amazing Winds and Convection
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Click on picture for Dale Ireland's time lapse movie of today's action.Its cold, windy, with heavy rain in places. Convective showers are raking the region and heavy snow is hitting the mountains. A winter storm in spring and a savior to our water supply concerns this summer. Last night and early this morning there was some very powerful winds...hurricane...
Serious Rain and Wind
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A fairly strong storm for this time of the year is approaching, but the interesting weather will be late today (Sunday). On Sunday there will be sunbreaks and showers for most of the region, with more serious weather arriving later this afternoon. The media has really been hyping this event up.Take a look at the 24h precipitation ending 5 PM Sunday...
Springtime Dust storms
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During the past week there has been a major dust storm over east Asia, with dust spreading over eastern China, Japan, and over the Pacific. This is not an academic issue for us here in Northwest because occasionally this dust is carried across the Pacific, influencing visibility and air quality over the Northwest.Take a look at a picture in Beijing...
A warm day and then rain
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Today was very warm around western Washington, with some stations (like Sea Tac) breaking their all-time daily record. Now let me make one thing clear...breaking a daily record is not that unusual. We break a few of them every year for highs or lows. Breaking monthly or all-time records like last summer's 103F...THAT is impressive.Here is a map...
Will Issaquah Pick Poor Math Books?
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Issaquah and Sammamish are home to a well educated population, many of which are employed in professional and high tech occupations. Thus, it is surprising that the Issaquah School District administration is doing everything possible to place very poor math books in its schools. Tomorrow (Wednesday, March 24) night the Issaquah School Board will vote on the administration's recommendation for the Discovering Math series in their high schools. These are very poor math texts: (1) Found to be "unsound" by mathematicians hired the State Board of Education. (2) Found to be inferior to a more traditional...
Summer Outlook
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A number of you are asking about the outlook for the summer. Warm summer again? Drought conditions? El Nino effects?The bottom line is that my ability and the ability of my colleagues are very limited in such predictions---even though seasonal forecasts are made by the National Weather Service.Weather forecasting skill, the ability to predict...
Warmth
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Update at 6 PM. Really got toasty today....upper 60s to 70 on Puget Sound eastside and the southern Sound. But clouds are now rolling in now . I went cross country skiing at Blewett Pass today on the eastern slopes of the Cascades. At 4000-4800 ft there was snow, but it wasn't pleasant in many spots. Icy in the shade, rutted and full of holes...
Diurnal Variations
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Now we are in a dead weather period (no precipitation until Sunday), it is good time to look at the typical daily (diurnal) variations of various weather parameters. One of my favorite charts is shown above...a 24-hr plot of the surface observations at a station (in this case Seattle Tacoma Airport) for the past day (ending Thursday afternoon)....
Radar Secrets Revealed
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Today I can reveal some information that has been under wraps for a while: the suggested location of the new weather radar on the Washington coast.As many of you know, a coastal radar has been a dream of Northwest meteorologists for a long time, a device that will improve warnings and forecasts, improve our quality of life, and save lives and property....
I want a home weather station? What should I buy?
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One of the most frequent questions I get is from people wanting to set up a weather station in their home. What should they buy? Where should they install it?Lets try to tackle these important questions.Having your own weather observations is really marvelous. There are very large variations in weather locally and you CAN'T assume that your home...
Wind and Snow
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Its Friday morning and the front has just gone by. That is evident from the end of the moderate showers (see the radar image above) and the wind shift and pressure rise at Destruction Is on the Washington coast (see table). Beautiful image of the front and the associated offshore low in the latest infrared satellite image (see below).The wind is...
Seattle, Bellevue, and Issaquah: School Districts Versus Good Math Education
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Major Update: Tonight (Thursday night) the Bellevue Math Adoption Committee voted to adopt Holt instead of the Discovering Math series. This is extraordinary good news and one can assume that school board will follow suit. It was clear to those attending that the massive intervention of Bellevue parents was a major factor. The School district received...
SNOW!! And the Faucet is about to turn on....
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As predicted, some snowflakes were flying today around the Puget Sound lowlands, with dozens of reports from southwest Washington to Bellingham. See the video of snow in Federal Way: http://www.youtube.com/watch?v=sdfKPEM78xMSeveral people asked how it can snow when temperatures were about freezing--in some cases with temperatures this morning in...
The Big Wet Chill
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Well, we were all getting a little smug about this spring. Day after day of warmer than normal temperatures, bulbs and trees blooming roughly a month early, and drier than normal conditions. El Nino winter was here and Seattle City Light and others worry about the low snowpack and lack of water for power generation. Summer had to be just around the...
Why was my flight so bumpy? Part II
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Well, as long as I am terrorizing all of you with tales of flight turbulence, I might as well be complete!In my last blog I talked about the number-one source of turbulence in the skies, shear-induced turbulence. When such turbulence occurs outside of clouds it is often called clear air turbulence or CAT.But there is another source of aircraft bumps...
