Wetand News

  Several folks have asked me about the winter extremes of the region, so I decided to do a podcast about it (see below). As shown in a map of the average January minimum temperatures below (from my book), the coolest temperatures are found east of the Cascade crest, where marine influence is limited by that mountain barrier.   Warmest temperatures are along the coast, where the relatively warm Pacific Ocean keeps things moderate. Look closely and you will see the warmest temperatures are on the southern Oregon coast from Brookings to Coos Bay.  The Banana Belt of the Northwest.  As explained in the podcast, the high terrain around Medford plays a large role in this warmth. And then I take on the issue of the coldest locations of our region, with the Washington records in the high Methow river valley, where cold air sinks down into the towns of Winthrop and Mazama.  And there is more.... Winthrop and Mazama are found in the relatively deep Methow River Valley To listen to my podcast, u

 There has been a lot of discussion in the media and elsewhere about the recent flooding in Seattle's South Park neighborhood, and others have noted high water levels on the Sound shoreline, including Alki Beach and Tacoma (see some pictures below). The origin of the flooding is described in this blog.   To give away the punchline, the flooding was the result of an unusual astronomical setup producing King Tides, extreme low pressure from a powerful storm, moderate rainfall, and a human-caused vulnerability in South Park that should have been dealt with years ago. Although some are making unfounded claims about climate change, global warming played very little role in the flooding event, something I will prove to you below . The South Park flooding, courtesy of the SDOT Blog Coastal flooding in Tacoma.  Picture courtesy of  Jenni Wynkoop King Tides The key aspect of this event was the King Tide, very high high-tide levels resulting from an unusual astronomical alignment of the Eart

A powerful Pacific cyclone is now approaching landfall and its powerful winds have already caused massive power outages over Oregon, where over 100,000 customers are in the dark as I write this. Washington State is next. Infrared satellite imagery shows the large-scale cyclone over the West Coast (see below).  Huge in scale. A close-up visible image this morning shows the circulation with the low west of Westport. Now the exciting part: the coastal radar on Langley Hill near Hoquiam is picking up the circulation offshore (see below).   Very helpful.  I always think appreciably of Senator Maria Cantwell when I see such images (she played a critical role in securing the hardware). The Poisonous Tail Oceanic midlatitude cyclones have a structure different than cyclones over land, and the current storm is no exception. Below is the analysis of sea level pressure (solid lines) and wind gusts (color shading) at 4 AM this morning.   You will notice a large pressure change and strong winds on

  There is a lot of wind to talk about in this blog--a significant Pacific cyclone will make landfall on the Northwest coast tomorrow....and strong winds will result. But before I get into that, there was a blow this morning in western Washington as a powerful cold front went through from roughly 7-8 AM.  Below is the Camano Island radar image at roughly 7:15 AM below, with the arc-shaped frontal feature in yellow to red. This feature is an intense narrow cold frontal rain band , and was associated with winds gusting to around 50 mph, a rapid wind shift, and a significant temperature drop.  The models had it, but underplayed its strength.     The maximum winds this morning are shown below.  55 mph at SeaTac, 59 mph in Bellingham, and over 60 mph on the coast.  No wonder there are about 100,000 customers out of power in the region. The Storm But this is just a "warm up" for the event of tomorrow afternoon and evening. Offshore, satellite imagery shows a massive cloud feature o

First, we had unusual cold, then a freezing-rain ice storm, then heavy rain, and then unusual warmth. But the weather gods are not through with us. A powerful storm may develop off our coast on Tuesday.   In such circumstances during ancient days, folks would ask themselves why the gods were angry and ask their priests to intercede with an appropriate prayer or sacrifice.   Today, our modern weather priests often blame such storminess on sins of carbon emission and predict doom without the proper response.     Human nature hasn't changed.  But in this blog, let's stick to the science. A Profound Change in Atmospheric Circulation Let me show you the upper level (500 hPa, about 18,000 ft) weather maps from three days ago (Wednesday at 10 AM) and yesterday at the same time.   A profound change .  On Wednesday, a deep trough of low pressure was inland while a ridge of low pressure was offshore, resulting in a strong, cold airstream from the northwest. Wednesday By yesterday, the ri

  My new podcast is out.    In the second segment, I talk about regional freezing rain events and reveal which areas of the Northwest are world-class in the ice storm domain (see map below for a hint). In the first segment, I talk about the forecast. Major changes are ahead, including massive amounts of rain in the mountains!   Here is the forecast precipitation through 4 PM Monday.  Wow.  Up to approximately 10 inches in the mountains. Enough rain that some rivers will get near their daily records (see an example of the Snohomish below) 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 

 As predicted, a major freezing rain event has occurred over western Washington.   In fact, this is probably the most severe freezing rain occurrence in western Washington since December 1996. With a glaze of ice, even walking is challenging, roads are treacherous, SeaTac runways are closed, bus service is canceled over the region, and some major highway sections are closed (such as I-90 west of 405). Good advice: stay home until 1 PM. Courtesy of WSDOT Courtesy of KOMO TV.   The major frontal band is now moving out, but there are showers behind it, as evident on the latest radar image.  That means some scattered freezing rain showers for a few more hours, since low-level temperatures are still below freezing for most of the region except for the coast. When will we thaw out?   Between noon and 4 PM today for most residents of the lowlands, so there are several more hours of this icy mess....so please don't travel if you can avoid it. Here are the surface air temperature forecast

 It is looking increasingly probable that a significant freezing rain event will occur during the next day. Freezing rain can make driving dangerous and result in extensive power outages. As described in my previous blog, freezing rain occurs when temperatures warm above freezing aloft but sub-freezing air remains near the surface.   Raindrops fall into the sub-freezing air and can supercool to below-freezing, yet remain liquid.  Such droplets can freeze on contact on a cold surface. The Current Situation Temperatures are well below freezing throughout the region, as shown by the map below of 2 PM temperatures. A warm front is approaching the coast, accompanied by precipitation, as picked up by the Langley Hill Radar near the coast (see radar image).  Clouds from the approaching system have already started to spread over the western side of the region and precipitation has now reached the WA southwest coast. Precipitation will start as snow, then sleet, then freezing rain, and finally