There is some serious wind tonight--with gusts to 20-30 mph as an upper trough moves through. Almost blew me over on my bike today.Tonight, I wanted to talk about the most serious aspect of the KUOW affair: the extraordinary willingness of the station to spread incorrect information to defend itself. But considering that some of you are not interested...
Why Some Forecasts Don't Work Out and What We Can Do About It!
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Today was a generally warm, cloudy day with occasional light sprinkles and showers, quite a contrast with what was predicted only a few days ago. The high today at Sea-Tac was 69F with a trace a rain. More rain fell over the south Sound and the coast.Lets take a look at the National Weather Service forecasts for Sea Tac and vicinity provided on various...
Olympic Snowpack is 39,100 Percent of Normal!
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I took a look at the latest snowpack report today and was stunned!As reported by the U.S. Department of Agriculture's Natural Resources Conservation Service the Olympic Mt. snowpack (actually the total snow water equivalent--SWE--of the current snowpack) was nearly four hundred times normal. Here is the official map (click to on it to enlarge):Most...
Iridescent Clouds
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This week I received some wonderful pictures from Patrick McKinnon, showing rainbow-like cloud features over Seattle. Take a look at them!And over the past year, others have sent me similar pics. What are they? They have lots of colors like rainbows, but they aren't rainbows. And besides there is no rain with them!What you are seeing is an example...
KUOW and Its Listeners
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Note: One month ago my 5-minute weekly weather segment was cancelled on the UW public radio station after doing it for 15 years. The reason--I would not absolutely guarantee never to talk about anything other than the weather forecast. I had an earlier blog describing the lead up to this situation: http://cliffmass.blogspot.com/2011/05/no-more-weather-on-kuow-weekday.html...
Summer Weather and Audio Podcast
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A lot of people are asking about the summer. My college-student son Nathan told me that I should try an audio podcast on the topic....so here it is: Tell me if you like it (he arranged the music!).Bottom line: Cooler than normal for the next week or so but then we may well enjoy a normal summer from that point on.One of the major reasons our weather...
Fukushima Radiation and Infant Mortality in the NW? No way.
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Irresponsible environmental scarsters are back.During the past few days a number of you have emailed me about several media stories and web reports about radiation from the Fukushima nuclear plant causing a 35% increase in infant mortality here in the Pacific Northwest.The majority of the mainstream media did not go with this story, but a few did,...
Videopodcast for June 17th
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Here is my videopodcast for today.http://www.youtube.com/watch?v=uZ8gp-Hxh0AGreat day today (Friday) but showers and cooler weather on Saturday. Go to the eastern slopes if you want to hike on Saturday!I have updated the coastal radar website (see the link to the right). Major progress---the transmitter and receiver are in, power is in, and the antenna assembly and base are being completed. They are clearly ahead of schedule and I suspect the radar will be ready for testing within a month. The National Weather Service is working hard and effectively to make this happen quickly.A number of you have emailed me...
Puget Sound Convergence Zone
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Late spring is the convergence zone time of the year and we have one tonight. Take a look at the latest radar image and you can see the band of precipitation north of Seattle (see graphic). This one is somewhat amorphous--partially because the atmosphere is not that unstable (this gives you a nice line of convection).Now let me show you something...
Scary Snowpack Stories (Updated June 14)
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If you believe some of the media, this is what is in store for us, very soon!They're back--the hyped media claims of serious global warming impacts occurring right now. This week an article in Science magazine on long-term western U.S. snowpack reconstructions using tree rings has set media headlines ablaze across the U.S.:Researchers See Unusually...
Weekend Podcat and Who is a Meteorologist?
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Here is my weekend podcast--I got a better microphone and increased the cursor size and the field of view...see what you think!An issue that comes up a lot is: who is really a meteorologist? Are all TV weather folks meteorologists? Do you need a degree? The U.S. Government is clear about this issue. To apply for a meteorologist position with the National Weather Service or other government agency you need a large collection of physics, math, and atmospheric sciences courses that generally requires a B.S. in atmospheric sciences/meteorology (atmospheric sciences and meteorology are essentially the same thing)....
Why we suffer with low clouds
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Take a look at the visible satellite picture today and something strikes you: most of the eastern Pacific is covered with clouds! The majority of these are shallow stratus or stratocumulus clouds found within the lower few thousand feet.During this time of the year the atmospheric structure of the eastern Pacific is often characterized by a relatively...
Onshore Push
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Update 7 AM Tuesday...the push was fairly strong last night---and still quite breezy this morning. The satellite picture below shows low clouds pushing to the crest of the Cascades. Want sun today? Simply go over the passes. A few miles more and you will be in bright sun. But remember that places like Ellensberg will get hammered by strong NW...
Record Breaking Storm Hits California
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While we are enjoying the most spectacular day since late last summer, California has been hit by a very unusual storm that has brought heavy rain to coastal and central California.The satellite picture is simply stunning:A deep low is circling off the Bay area, with a very strong front extending over the coastal areas. This kind of system would be...
