Wetand News

Yesterday, around 0400 UTC 15 January (8 PM PST 14 January), there was a massive, explosive eruption near Tonga, in the southern tropical Pacific, about 5642 miles from Seattle (see map). The volcano was clearly evident in satellite imagery from the massive ash cloud (see below, about 1-h after the eruption) The explosive eruption created shock waves in the atmosphere (pressure waves) that rapidly propagated away.  These waves are evident in some infrared (water vapor channel) imagery as concentric rings (shown below). The oceanic eruption also pushed away a massive amount of water, which created a tsunami on nearby islands (such as Tonga) and deep water waves that moved away at the speed of a jet plane, reaching the West Coast this morning.  This is why some local tsunami warnings went out this AM. The Pressure Wave Reaches the Northwest Local barometers indicated a well-defined pressure wave passing over our region around 4:30 AM this morning.  Here in Seattle, the University of Was

After one dismal weekend after another, relatively dry conditions are ahead--thanks to persistent ridging--high pressure--over the northeast Pacific.  The visible satellite image around noon shows sun reaching the surface for much of western WA, with the exception of fogged in areas near the water.   Lots of fog and middle clouds still over eastern WA. A ridge of high pressure will develop aloft over the weekend (see map at 500 hPa...about 18,000 ft/..on Sunday morning below), leading to dry conditions and normal temperatures over much of the region.  But the ridge will not be strong enough to keep middle-level clouds away or precipitation from British Columbia. Monday should be relatively dry until a moderate front approaches late in the day. Check the podcast for more details on the forecast....and an explanation of the typical mid-January drying of the region--illustrated by the probability of measurable precipitation at Sea Tac below. You can listen to the podcast below or through

Today, NOAA released the latest drought update for the U.S., through their Drought Monitor website . The updated map for Washington State, shown below, indicates normal conditions for western Washington and the western side of the Cascades.    But east of the Cascades, it indicates large areas of moderate drought, severe drought, and even EXTREME drought . I am very troubled by this drought depiction .  As demonstrated below, it simply doesn't appear reasonable. Such excessive drought depictions are frequently provided by this source.  A major issue is that media and politicians pay a lot of attention to the Drought Monitor graphic, and it serves as one source of the ever-present drought narrative that is constantly being thrown around on social and traditional media (see below from CNN). Courtesy of CNN, January 13th. So is "extreme" or "severe" drought reasonable for eastern Washington State?   Let me provide you with the data and YOU make your own appraisal. 

King Tides represent unusually high water levels, which occur when the geometry of the sun and moon are just right. But this year, the predicted tide got a major boost in Seattle, thanks to the atmosphere. On Friday around 9:15 AM, the water level in Seattle rose to 14.47 feet above sea level and probably was higher in the 20 minutes before (there was an outage at the site between  8:42 and 912: AM) The previous record high tide in Seattle was 14.51 ft in December 2012.  We very well might have beat it. The result was coastal flooding throughout the area.                                        Near Alki Point that morning (courtesy of the West Seattle Blog). Below is the predicted (blue) and actual (red) water levesl at Seattle from the NOAA Tide and Currents website since January 3.  Friday's prediction (around 12.5 ft) was WAY too low (by about 2 feet).  (a red arrow indicates Friday)  Something greatly increased the high tide! But what? The secret was a vigorous low-pressure sy

 The answer is no.    A single major snow event or even a major snow season does NOT mean that global warming is no longer a concern. Similarly, a single weather event (e.g, the summer heatwave in June or the heavy rains in December) does not mean much about global warming. This is a lesson that the media and some activists need to learn--on both sides of the issue. Stevens Pass Let's be honest- -if we were experiencing an extremely low snowpack this year in the western U.S., the media and activists would be crowing about global warming.   The familiar Seattle Times folks (e.g, John Talton, David Horsey, and others), the Guardian,  and the Washington Post, among others, would be putting out the "existential" warnings about it (see David Horsey's cartoon). Grist magazine would do a feature article on snowpack decline and Seattle350 would schedule another protest in front of Chase Bank. But this year they have been quiet. Cartoon by David Horsey and provided by the Seat

 We are now experiencing one of the most active weather periods in a while. It started with several feet of snow in the Cascades and its eastern slopes, which closed all cross-Cascade passes and dumped record snows from Ellensburg to Wenatchee (where the ALL-TIME record 24-h snow record--about 2 feet-- was broken).  The regional snowpack is now way above normal. Near Wenatchee Thursday Afternoon Courtesy fo Tom Callahan Then we have one of the strongest warm fronts in years, bringing rapid temperature rises and turning the snow to freezing rain in the passes and the eastern Cascade slopes. Precipitation ?  HUGE amounts (see below, click to expand) of up to ten inches over southwest Washington that caused river flooding, particularly for the Chehalis. And this event ends today with a very strong cold front, behind which a damaging surge of strong westerly winds will move down the Strait, followed by strong winds descending the eastern slopes of the Cascades. All followed by a calm, dry

Last Thursday, December 30th, powerful downslope winds resulted in a massive grass fire that rapidly moved into neighborhoods around Superior, Colorado--a town between Denver and Boulder. Driven by winds exceeding 100 mph that rushed down the eastern slopes of the Colorado Front Range, a fire initiated by humans moved rapidly towards populated areas, with roughly 1000 homes lost, a number of businesses destroyed or damaged, and two people unaccounted for. Large areas of dry grass surrounded the burning homes and businesses of Superior, CO and nearby Louisville. Within hours of the event, several media outlets including the Washington Post, the Seattle Times, National Public Radio, NBC News, and Axios (to name only a few), were making broad claims that the fires were the result of global warming (or "climate change" in the modern vernacular) or that global warming played a major role. Politicians, such as the Governor of Colorado, blamed climate change, as did a contingent of