Wetand News

Southern BC will soon be hit by unusually heavy precipitation for this time of the year.     And conditions before July 4th will be a damp affair, with a good chance of thunderstorms Saturday evening and Sunday morning.  Let me start by giving you the big view:  the total predicted rainfall during the next seven days.  The European Center accumulated precipitation forecast through 5 AM next Thursday (below), shows considerable rain.. as much as 2-3 inches in southern BC, with the North Cascades and northeast WA getting a piece of the wet action The University of Washington modeling system's forecast is similarly wet.  BC ducks will be happy. The first big rain action will start Saturday night as an approaching upper-level trough forces a series of thunderstorms that will move northward out of Oregon.   The uber-high resolution UW forecast model shows the simulated satellite image at 11 PM Saturday (below).  The most active thunderstorms will be over the Cascades and eastern WA, but

On April 6, a wildfire was accidentally ignited by U.S. Forest Service personnel doing a prescribed burn near Hermit's Peak, New Mexico.  A prescribed burn is a deliberately set fire intended to reduce the potential for catastrophic wildfires by burning off surface fuels during conditions unlikely to cause an uncontrollable wildfire.  This Hermit's Peak fire began about 30 miles east of Santa Fe and 15 miles northwest of Las Vegas, NM.  Joining another escaped fire two weeks later (the Calf Canyon Fire), the Hermit's Peak fire has now burned  342,000  acres and destroyed over 900 structures.   The area of the Hermit's Peak/Calf Canyon Fire as of June 27 The cost of fighting the fire is now over 250 million dollars and the total damage, all the responsibility of the Federal government, will easily range into the billions of dollars.   Satellite image of the fire area last week.   Red indicates burned area and bright orange shows active fires. As I will describe below, n

What a difference a year makes .  The bountiful precipitation and cool temperatures have resulted in a far greener Washington and Oregon east of the Cascade crest. Let me show you. Consider the visible satellite picture yesterday (see below) 2022 Now compare it to one year ago. 2021 The differences are substantial.     Do you see how much greener southwest Washington and northeast Oregon are?   Pay particular attention to the eastern side of the Columbia Basin. To show the difference even more clearly, let me zoom in on the southeast portion of Washington State.  A lot more fields are green--and many of these are wheat and barley farms. 2022 Although there has been a lot of talk of drought and problems for dryland farmers in eastern Washington, the truth is that things look good.   But don't take my word for it.   Below are the statistics available from the Washington Association of Wheat Growers  and taken by the Federal National Agricultural Statistics Service data collection as

This weekend is going to be the warmest of the year so far in the Pacific Northwest and my podcast provides the details.    But  I don't stop with the forecast:  in my second segment, I tell you how difficult it is to get a heatwave in western Oregon and Washington because of the cool Pacific Ocean and the specific conditions needed to push us into warm territory. The key feature promoting weekend warmth is an upper-level ridge of high pressure that will develop over us on Saturday and Sunday (see upper level...500 hPa pressure...about 18,000 ft...for 5 PM Sunday) At the surface, this situation is associated with high pressure inland that produces easterly (offshore-directed) flow that pushes the cool marine influence out to sea.   This is shown by a surface map at 5 PM Saturday, with colors showing temperatures and pressures by solid lines. The latest forecasts for surface temperature show the warming. 5 PM Saturday:  Temperatures in the 80s or more are found in the Columbia Basin

I am excited about the possibility of doing in-person bookstore talks again...and I am beginning with one at the Barnes and Noble in Seattle (Northgate) at 1 PM this  Saturday (June 25th).  More information here .  It will be very good to talk to people in person. My talk will describe some interesting aspects of Northwest Weather, including the origin of June gloom, Northwest heatwaves, the rapid transition to summer in late June or early July, and much more.    I will also note the heavily updated version of my Northwest Weather book (see below).  I will be happy to sign and personalize any copies of my book you purchase at Barnes and Noble or bring with you. The new version of my book is entirely updated with recent storms and weather events, and I have added two major chapters:  one on the meteorology of Northwest wildfires and the other on the weather of British Columbia.  I completely rewrote the chapter on climate change in the Pacific Northwest.  The outline of the book is foun

Although the term heatwave has recently become a word that provokes fear and anxiety, a short, moderate heat wave can be very pleasant. A time for swimming, icy drinks, and hanging out at a local park. This week we will enjoy such a welcome period of warmth.  In a real sense, we are about to cross a meteorological rubicon from a cool/wet spring into mild/dry summer. Below is the latest National Weather Service forecast for Seattle.   We have one relatively dreary day ahead (Wednesday), with a high of 65F.   Thursday is the transition day.  Friday will be in the mid 70s and Saturday through Monday will bring highs into low to mid-80s. And after our "heatwave", there will be day after day in the 70s. The warm period will be associated with the development of a moderate upper-level ridge along the West Coast, illustrated by the upper-level (500-hPa pressure level, about 18,000 ft) map at 2 AM Sunday (see below). The surface map at 5 PM Saturday, during the first day of the warmt

Announcement    I will be giving a talk on Northwest Weather and signing copies of my updated book (Weather of the Pacific Northwest) at the Northgate (Seattle) Barnes and Noble at 1 PM on Saturday, June 25th.   ___________________ It is a well-known aphorism that it is always darkest before the dawn.     And this wisdom may prove particularly applicable to the weather situation this week.  A major  improvement will soon occur But first, let's talk about darkness. 330 PM Friday in Seattle.  It rarely gets worse than this in June. On Friday, Seattle only received 4.64 MegaJoules per square meter of the surface (Joules are a unit of energy).    This is the darkest June day since June 2014.   June 9th was almost as dark.  And Saturday was only slightly brighter.   Full sun this time of year should be around 900 watts per square meter.   We have had several days with half that much With cool, cloudy air over us, soil temperatures have stopped rising and started to decline, as shown by