Wetand News

UPDATE EARLY THIS AFTERNOON:  The situation is getting even more serious.  Nearly certain the many west-side stations from Seattle south will exceed their all-time temperature records, some by a lot. ___________________________________________ The weather model solutions are now converging and we are close enough to the event to have some confidence in the forecast. The bottom line:  we are about to experience a historic regional heatwave, which will break both daily and all-time temperature records.    A heatwave that is made even more unusual by its timing, occurring far earlier than most of the major extreme-warmth periods of the past. But the heat will not be uniform, and some locations, such as Northwest Washington and the coast, will escape the extremes. Previous Record Highs Before I provide the torrid forecast--and tell you why I am confident in it-- let's review how warm things have gotten in our region in the past. The all-time record high for Washington State, based on o

Note:  I will update Wednesday morning after the new model runs come out..... The meteorological community is all abuzz about the forecast this weekend:  several of the global models are predicting an extraordinarily unusual heatwave this weekend in the Pacific Northwest. A heatwave so extreme that many locations might experience their warmest temperature on record.   For any day.  For any year.  And doing so in late June, which is not the usual time for the great temperature records. Waves are the reason for this heatwave But there is something else...there is great uncertainty in this forecast and what happens will depend on weather events over the western Pacific during the next few days. Let me show you... the forecasts are simply insane. To start, here are the forecast temperatures for 5 PM Sunday based on the excellent European Center model.   As high as 121F in the northern Central Valley of California, 113 and 115 in the Columbia Basin, and 104-105 in the Willamette Valle

Recently, I was walking along the south shore of Long Island with another meteorologist, Nick Weber, and we decided to purchase some ice cream cones. Nothing fancy...  a sugar cone with two scoops.   The market was air-conditioned and the ice cream was fine as we paid for it.   But nearly the second we went outside, the ice cream started to melt very, very rapidly. I had never seen anything like it. And you can imagine our desperation to enjoy our treats before they disappeared.   The temperature outside was not excessive....roughly 75F, with a light wind, roughly 5 mph by my estimate. Within a minute or two, our hands were sticky with melted ice cream and we asked ourselves what was going on.  And we both thought of the answer at the same time:  the humidity, and particularly the high dew point. Remember dew point is the temperature at which condensations (100% relative humidity) occurs when air is cooled. If air has a lot of water vapor and the dew point is high, water vapor in the

There has been a lot of talk about heatwaves over the southwest U.S. this week, and I wanted to provide some heat-wave 101 in my new podcast (see below). Have we been breaking more high-temperature records during the past decades? The answer may surprise you! And I provide the weekend forecast, which promises dry conditions and temperatures increasing into the lower 80s during the next few days. The origin of our warmth will be the development of a ridge of upper-level high pressure over the eastern Pacific during the next few days (see forecast map for Sunday morning). Sunday Morning, 500-hPa Heights (around 18,000 ft) You can listen to my podcast below or use your favorite streaming service. You can also use your favorite streaming service (see below)   Listen on Apple Podcasts   Listen on Spotify Podcasts   Listen on Google Podcasts

 After all the challenging weather talk of late, including heavy rain, humid air, heat waves, the potential for wildfires, and drought, it is nice to step back and enjoy the beauty that the sky offers, enhanced by our understanding of what is going on. For example, consider the Noctilucent Clouds that have been observed the last few days over the region.  These extraordinarily beautiful clouds, observed after sunset or before sunrise, are comprised of ice-covered meteor dust high in the atmosphere (250,000 to 280,000 ft)--MUCH higher than normal clouds, which are generally found below 35,000 ft.  As an aside, noctilucent can be translated from Latin as "night-shining." Here is an image of last night's noctilucent clouds, provided by Greg Johnson of Skunk Bay Weather, taken at 3:31 AM this morning.   It was taken looking north from the Kitsap Peninsula.  The white lights are the noctilucent clouds.  And you can also see some of the colors of the incipient sunrise. But one

 The final stage in our wet interval is about to begin:  the potential for thunderstorms in western Washington. Lightning has been no stranger to our region the past two days.  For the 24-h ending Monday at 1 AM, eastern Washington was hit by hundreds of cloud to ground lightnining strokes. And the next 24h, ending 1 AM this morning, continued to show lightning hits over the region east of the Cascade crest.  I suspect that some of you on the western side will get to enjoy a few "boomers" as well. today...but, let me be clear:   the thunderstorms will be scattered. Before I go into that, I note that the precipitation over the past 72h has been substantial (see below), with 1-2 inches over SW Washington, where spring had been the driest.  And there has been a nice wetting of the slopes in eastern Washington, which should help to delay the wildfire threat.  And enough rain in Palouse to assist dryland farming a bit (but they still need more).  June precipitation will be above n

Today we are experiencing the unusual:  a relatively potent June atmospheric river, in which moisture from the subtropics is heading directly into our region.   Substantial precipitation has fallen, helping to mitigate previously dry conditions from northern California to coastal Brtish Columbia.  The radar image tonight says it all.....rain, some of it moderate to heavy, extending over western Oregon and Washington: And a recent satellite image of atmospheric water vapor content shows an impressive moisture "river" extending from north of Hawaii to southern Oregon.  Precipitation has been bountiful....and the event is not over by any means.  The event-total through 4 PM indicates about a half-inch over Puget Sound but 1-3 inches on the south side of the Olympics and 1-1.5 inches over SW Washington.  Very welcome, indeed, after a dry spring along the coast. But if you really want to be impressed with the precipitation, head to southern Oregon and northern CA, where some locat