TV Notice: KBTC TV (One of our local public tv stations) will be doing a special on the Langley Hill radar on Monday, Jan 9th at 6:30 PM. More information here: http://www.kbtc.org/pop_schedule.php?id=22977Yesterday, there as also another local heat wave....one related to the Eatonville heat burst: several locations in eastern Oregon and Washington got into the upper 60s, with downtown Walla Walla hitting 72F. Here is the official record report from the NWS:
Warm air aloft, strong southerly winds, and terrain are the cause--just as the case for Eatonville. The north side of the Oregon Blue Mountains can get real toasty, even midwinter, under such conditions, with the towns of Walla Walla and Pendleton in the banana belt. Here are the observations at the Walla Walla Airport (KALW). Temps start in the 30s in the morning (time in GMT/UTC-1553 is 7:53 AM), temperatures surged into the upper 60s in the early afternoon when the winds switched to a southerly direction (direction in degrees, 180 degrees is southerly, 90 degrees is easterly, etc).
As shown by the following terrain map, southerly or southeasterly flow descends the Blue Mountains, warming by compression.
Exceptionally boring weather is ahead of us...relatively dry, seasonal temperatures, no major storms.
