Wetand News

 My podcast discusses surface air temperature, how it varies, and how a little knowledge about it might save your life while driving.  Check it out either through the links below or through your favorite podcast service. And there there is this weekend, which is also covered in the podcast.  Today (Friday) has been quite pleasant but a fairly strong front is rapidly approaching rapidly. 2 PM Friday The front will move through Saturday morning bringing moderate rain with trailing showers.  By Sunday morning the entire region will be wetted down, with Oregon getting the brunt of the precipitation (see below) Sunday should be very nice as high pressure builds aloft, with temperatures surging into the 60s in western Washington.  Then on Monday, a potent system will come in from the Northwest, dumping another major shot of precipitation into Oregon (see below).   This is all very good news, since Oregon has been considerably drier than Washington this winter. To listen to my podcast, use th

A mysterious cloud circle appeared over the skies near Victoria and San Juan Island last evening around 6:45 PM (see a photo taken by Robert Beck, MD). I received several emails with pictures, and the Twittersphere is alive with more pictures and speculations. People are concerned, worried, amazed, and curious.   UFO?  Chemtrails?  Strange natural cloud?  The atmospheric version of crop circles? So as a public service, let us try to solve this mystery! Let's start by looking at a high-resolution visible satellite image at the time! (see below) Look closely and you will see some thin high clouds just north of the San Juans...and also near Port Townsend.  These are thin cirrostratus clouds, located between 25,000 and 30,000 ft. Important clues.   And look closely to the northwest of Sequim....there are faint lines.  These are contrails produced by aircraft. Contrails result from the moisture and particles ejected from jet aircraft engines, with the moisture (water vapor) subsequently

Huge fires have been burning in Siberia, and with Russian personnel pulled away for criminal activities in Ukraine, the infernos are spreading rapidly. The smoke was evident in the visible satellite imagery on Sunday around noon (look for the subtle haziness over the coastal waters right off the West Coast).  This is from the NASA MODIS satellite. The MODIS satellite can determine where it is seeing particles associated with smoke/dust, as illustrated by an image at the same time. Some folks reported seeing an orange/reddish moon due to the smoke, as shown by this image from the National Weather Service in Seattle on Sunday. The smoky air moving off northeast Asia was evident five days ago (see below) And then was moved across the Pacific by the jet stream and pushed north and south by weather systems: Fortunately, the smoke has stayed aloft and air quality of the Northwest remains good (green circles in the map below from AIRNOW) April is a big month for smoke or dust to move from Asi

In a few previous blogs, I have criticized some of the media--such as the Seattle Times--for misinforming the public about extreme weather events.    Unfortunately, hypsters in the media have had help from those in government and academia, and there are few better examples than the latest claims about severe drought continuing in Washington State. A case in point is the latest official Drought Monitor graphic for Washington State produced by the U.S.  Department of Agriculture (see below).   According to their analysis, about half of the state is in moderate drought, roughly a quarter is in severe drought, and about 10% is in EXTREME drought.   The extreme drought area extends from roughly Yakima through Ephrata (see satellite map below, with the "extreme drought" area shown by the black oval).  Much of the "extreme drought" area is irrigated by water from the Yakima and Columbia Rivers and thus will not experience agricultural losses as long as those rivers have am

During the past 24-hours, there have been a few lightning strokes over the region (see below) but nothing to write home about (see below). It turns out that the Pacific Northwest and the remainder of the West Coast have some of the lowest frequencies of thunderstorms in the entire country (see below). But why?    My podcast provides the answer. And I also give the weekend forecast....and I think most will like what I have to say. To listen to my podcast, use the link below or access it through your favorite podcast service. Some major podcast servers:     Like the podcast? Support on Patreon 

Middle spring is a very unstable time for the atmosphere over the Pacific Northwest. What do we mean by unstable?    It means that parcels of air displaced upwards will tend to accelerate skyward for a time, resulting in the production of cumulus clouds...and even thunderstorms (see pictures below taken on Tuesday in Seattle to see what this looks like). Instability is related to the decline in temperature with height, with larger temperature decreases with height producing a more unstable atmosphere.  Spring, when the surface is being warmed by a rapidly stronger sun while the atmosphere above is still cool from winter, is the time of largest instability. The atmosphere is already starting to percolate this morning with small cumulus clouds forming around Puget Sound (see Seattle PanoCam below) And a visible satellite image earlier this morning shows some impressive cumulus/cumulonimbus development approaching the northern Oregon coast: This instability is being "juiced up"

There are few greater disappointments for our region than the precipitous decline of KNKX, a public radio station whose listenership and web traffic have declined rapidly as its news coverage has taken on a shrill partisan tone. But it is worse than that.   The change in KNKX has denied the region the balanced news coverage required for a free society to make wise decisions, and the station's implicit advocacy of an uber-progressive agenda, including defunding police, has contributed to the profound increase in crime and urban deterioration apparent throughout the region. Declining Public Interest and Listenership Google Trends provides a tool for viewing the number of searches over time, and the numbers for KNKX are shown below.   You will notice a major drop in mid-2020 as the editorial policy of the station shifted to pushing identity politics and they ejected their meteorologist for speaking up against the violence in Seattle.  And the online interest in KNKX continues to decl