Many of you come to this blog for state-of-the-art weather predictions based on the latest technology. Others look for insights derived from decades of regional weather research. And I do appreciate your interest in the blog.But sometimes insights come from sources other than high-resolution numerical models, Doppler radars, and other advanced technology....
Dry, Sun, and Modified Arctic Air
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Well folks, the threat of snow around here is over for a while. Cool, dry, modified arctic air is pushing over the region, showers are rapidly dissipating, and the sun is breaking out. If the models are even half correct, the next 3-5 days will be generally dry here without any significant weather activity other than a cool down (mainly east of...
The Real Deal about La Nina and The Upcoming Weather
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There has been a lot of bad information distributed by some media outlets about La Nina and this winter (e.g., "Where is La Nina", "No Show La Nina", "Winter is Over") and some talk about snow on Sunday over the lowlands. I would like to deal with this by going into more depth about what La Nina does to our weather. I will also vent about the media.Well,...
Tale of Two Half Months and the Banana Belt
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The weather during the last two weeks has been warmer than normal over much of the region, in contrast to the cold weather of the first half of the month. Take a look at the temperatures for the past four weeks at Seattle-Tacoma Airport (the normal highs and lows are shown too).During the first two weeks the high temperatures only reached normal...
Ridgmageddon
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I just got back from the first day of the annual meeting of the American Meteorological Society downtown at the Convention Center...an exhausting but exhilarating event. Thousands of meteorologists, hundreds of talks, booths and exhibits from a variety of vendors and groups, and free food...life doesn't get much better than that. The theme of the...
Where is La Nina?
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A question that several of you are asking is "Where is La Nina"?Where are all the deep snows in the mountains that are often associated with it?Or the big snows over the lowlands?Is winter over?So what is the situation now?But before I go into that, let me remind all of you about Weatherfest tomorrow (Sunday) from 12-4 PM at the WA State Convention...
A Great Irony, A Little Rain, And Then Dry
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I believe both of these statements are true:(1) Weather forecasting is now much more skillful than ten years ago.(2) There has never been as big a gap between what meteorologists know and the information provided to the public.Kind of ironic, right? Today, with huge amounts of data coming in from weather satellites and new observing systems, massive...
Huge Intense Storm in the Pacific
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Sometimes you have to stand back and be amazed by what goes on in the Pacific. Take a look at the Pacific surface analysis for earlier today:See the HUGE low pressure system over the eastern Pacific with a central (lowest) pressure of 933 millibars. That is simply amazing. And a 1038 mb high is just to the north, and an incredible pressure difference...
Gusts
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Last night I was sitting at my desk enjoying the sound of the winds..and it was quite an audio treat. I would hear the rumble in the distance. It would get closer and closer. Then the house and trees would shake.As all of you know, the wind is almost never constant, with ebbs and flows. As a result, meteorologists often talk about sustained winds...
Warm, Wet, and Windy
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In education it is the three "R"s....Reading, wRiting, and aRithmatic. (ok, they might not have mastered spelling that well)For the Northwest during flooding, mudslides, and pineapple express periods it is the three W's:Wet, Windy, and Warm.SUNDAY UPDATE: I can't help myself....Richard Rogers of Vashon Island sent me this wonderful video demonstrating...
Freezing Rain Hits the Northwest
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It almost belongs in Ripley's Believe it or NotCan water be below freezing and still be liquid? Liquid water at 30F or even lower?The answer is yes and we call this supercooled water.It turns out that the atmosphere is FULL of supercooled water, most frequently in middle clouds in the atmosphere.See this cumulocongestus cloud? The upper portions...
