Weekend Warmth and the Secrets of Northwest Heatwaves: All in My New Podcast

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, southwest Washington and into Puget Sound.


Even warmer on Sunday, with 90s (pink colors) spreading from the Willamette Valley into SW Washington as well as in the Columbia Basin.


Monday's 5 PM temperatures suggest major changes. Very hot in the Columbia Valley (more than 100F) and profound cooling along the immediate coast.  The marine air is moving back in! Perhaps the warmest day in northern Puget Sound.


And Tuesday afternoon will be profoundly cooler in the west.  Wow.  You might need a sweater!

This weekend is going to be the warmest of the year so far in the Pacific Northwest and my Weekend Warmth and the Secrets of Northwest Heatwaves: All in My New Podcast

To listen to my podcast, use the link below or access it through your favorite podcast service.


Some major podcast servers:

 This weekend is going to be the warmest of the year so far in the Pacific Northwest and my Weekend Warmth and the Secrets of Northwest Heatwaves: All in My New Podcast This weekend is going to be the warmest of the year so far in the Pacific Northwest and my Weekend Warmth and the Secrets of Northwest Heatwaves: All in My New Podcast
Like the podcast? Support on Patreon 


This weekend is going to be the warmest of the year so far in the Pacific Northwest and my Weekend Warmth and the Secrets of Northwest Heatwaves: All in My New Podcast

_____________

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.  

Comments

Post a Comment

Popular posts from this blog

Why so little lightning in the Pacific Northwest? And a very nice weekend ahead.

Image
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 
Read more

The Time of Year You Can See the Air Move

Image
  Most of the time, you can not see the air move.   You can feel it, but the complex, turbulent motions are invisible to you, except when it interacts with leaves and branches on trees and plants. But for a few weeks of the year, the sky is full of small, cotton-like tuffs that like a natural MRI machine reveals the complex three-dimensional motions of the atmosphere.   Cottonwood season.  And we right in the middle of it.   Being cottonwood aware is of particular value this year.  It reveals the active dispersion and movement of air that makes the outdoors essentially COVID safe, and thus should be of some comfort for those nervous about transmission outside. Cottonwood seeds are embedded in small cotton-like fibers.   A million seeds weigh about 3 pounds.  Yes, each seed and tuff weights about .000003 pounds.   And that fact, plus the cottonwood tuff, means that these seeds fall VERY, VERY, VERY slowly.   So slowly that they are excellent markers for the three-dimensional flow of the
Read more

A Much Colder Than Normal April: But How Unusual?

Image
  April was a chilly month over the Northwest, but how chilly?     It turns out the answer depends on where you are located. The difference between this April's temperatures from normal across Washington State (below) shows that the entire state was well below normal.  The eastern side of the state was particularly frigid:  some areas were more than 6 degrees below normal.   Considering the west side of the state, the April mean temperatures at SeaTac Airport are plotted below.   This April was the coolest since 2011. April 2020 was in 15th place for the coolest April since the mid-1940s and was a bit more than 4F below normal.  So if you felt that you were cheated out of normal spring warmth...you are right. But if you really wanted to experience extraordinary April cold you had to be east of the Cascade crest. Consider Yakima.  Wow.  It had the third coldest April temperature since the mid-1940s.   And the all-time record in 1955 was only slightly colder. If you want a longer-te
Read more