October 6, 2008
- Portland, Oregon
Weather Blog
With wind back in the forecasts, let's visit a bit of terminology that gets tossed around almost as much as autumn leaves during these situations.
One of the most popular questions is wondering what the difference between "breezy" and "windy" is on our forecasts. For me personally, when I write a forecast, I use "breezy" to describe when winds will be noticeable but not have any effect, and "windy" when speeds might start to cause problems. But I don't have a set wind speed that I use to switch between the two, it's more of how I want to paint the mental picture. Generally speaking, I'd say breezy is roughly 15-30 mph, and windy would be 30+. Or, breezy is enough to turn your umbrella inside out. Windy is enough to blow your umbrella down to the next block :) 
Another weekend is upon us -- time to find some cool stuff to "tide" you over until Monday. (That will be funnier in a moment.)
First up, let's do some videos. This one is from the resident time lapser Dr. Dale Ireland, whose gem this week is showing a gray start turning to sunshine over the Kitsap Peninsula on Sept. 26: Read more » 
With this year's rainy and stormy season just getting under way, we get quite a few requests for historical windstorm information.
Lucky for us, we have Wolf Read in our neighborhood. Read is a meteorologist who has compiled extensive research into windstorms that have struck the Pacific Northwest, then turned it into what has to be the best comprehensive database around. Want to compare the top wind speed in Hoquiam from the Dec. 14, 2006 windstorm to those of the 1993 Inauguration Day storm? It's there. Remember a windy day in early March in 1974 but can't find any information? It's there. Just go to: www.climate.washington.edu/stormking (P.S. I was just poking around this site some more Thursday afternoon, and found a link I had overlooked while just parusing past windstorms. Mr. Read has also written up an incredible explanation of how windstorms work here, and how a storm's track affects each region: http://www.climate.washington.edu/stormking/PressureGradients.html. We'll likely go into this in more depth here when we get a good windstorm on the way. 
Happy first day of the official rainy season in Portland. There's probably some irony that it's still dry and fairly warm outside, but if you've seen the forecasts lately, you know this is likely the last day we'll be sunny and 70+ for a while.
But October 1st is also the day we reset the annual rain gauge that measure the "water year." In addition to tracking rain from Jan. 1 to Dec. 31, we also track rain between Oct. 1 and Sept. 30 since the bulk of our rain comes in the fall and winter. That way, we can better gauge how a true rainy season shaped up, instead of cutting it in half and spreading it across two measurements' like the calendar year rainfall total does. This year, Portland's water year rain ended up at 32.82" -- over 4" below our normal of 37.07". (Incidentally, that is also exactly Seattle's annual average as well.) Nine of the 12 months were below normal, with November, February and September well below normal. The only really relatively wet month was December. This is somewhat surprising because La Nina winters historically tend to be wetter than normal -- although if you remember, the Cascades ended up with a higher snowpack than usual. Here is the monthly breakdown: Read more » 
It's easy to know when it starts snowing around here -- the tell-tale sign is the 36 e-mails that pop into our bin within seconds of the first snowflake.
But on Mars, where we gather the Internet has yet to make good inroads into their infrastructure, we have to be creative. Enter NASA, whose Phoenix Mars lander has detected snow in the Martian atmosphere. It evaporated before it reached the ground, but we hear it was enough to cancel classes at nearby Olympus Mons Middle School, cause a run on snow chains and it bumped the financial crisis on Earth off the top story of their local newscasts, with Martian meteorologists breathlessly warning of the impending snowflakes, complete with fancy graphics :) Here is the full article from NASA: 
Those in Newport Monday must have wondered what hit them. The temperature plunged from 69 to 63 within an hour-- then dropped another 11 degrees to a chilly 52 degrees an hour later.
This was due to the marine layer moving north up the Oregon coast. You can see it on the visible satellite image above. Later in the afternoon, that fog bank reached Astoria, which dropped from 78 at 1 p.m. to 71 at 2 p.m. -- and then down to 62 an hour later. So forgive the locals if you see them carrying a coat on a sunny and warm afternoon. They know warmth can be fleeting! 
You wouldn't think of Maine and Nova Scotia as a hotbed for hurricanes, but Hurricane Kyle managed to survive long enough to make landfall along Canada's Nova Scotia coast.
As to why a hurricane can survive that far north on the Atlantic Seaboard, while the Pacific Northwest, at about similar latitudes, has never had a hurricane, it all has to do with ocean temperatures. The Atlantic Ocean has a warm current that runs along the East Coast and keeps summer and fall ocean temperatures much warmer than the Pacific coast, which has much colder temperatures in the 55-60 range. Here is the entire article, written by AP writer David Sharp. Read more » 
NOAA is working on some new weather modeling that will greatly improve the accuracy of airdrops, because the last thing you want is that big box of supplies to land far away from where you wanted it.
Here is the full article from AP Science Writer Randolph E. Schmid:
Read more »
It's Friday -- time to find the week's best images to hold you over until Monday. (Although this week, it's two weeks' worth since I was out last week.) First up, these fantastic lenticular clouds posted by YouNews subscriber starlisa. Here's another one: Read more »
With the equinox passing and sunrise/sunset times nearly equal, sunset topics get a lot of play, so I've got a few to answer some common questions. First up: How come in Portland, today (Sept. 25) is the day with the nearly equal 7:02 am sunrise and 7:01 pm sunset, when the equinox was three days ago (When the sunrise was 7:00 am and the sunset was 7:05 pm)? It's a complex thing called the "Equation of Time". If you're daring, here's a link that explains it OK, that out of the way, something a little more easily explained: What time *is* the official sunset? The United States Naval Observatory calculates the official sunset as the time when the last tip of the top of the sun goes below the flat horizon. (The sunrise is when the tip pokes above the horizon.) Read more »
The IT people at NASA are going to be quite busy for the next little while as the agency is going to nearly triple the performance of a super computer it uses to simulate the Earth's weather.
(And I'll bet it'll make Solitare play screaming fast on there as well! :) ) Read more »
Fall is my favorite time of year, with the start of the stormy season among the reasons why (sort of the Super Bowl for weather forecasting). But the colorful leaves are a close second, and for many in New England, it's part of their livelihood.
But now, scientists there are probing whether climate change could affect the fall foliage season there. Here is the full article from AP writer Lisa Rathke --- Read more » 
You might have heard the old adage: "A butterfly flaps its wings in China and it can affect the weather over Minneapolis." What what about beetles? (The bugs, not the cute Volkswagens)
Here is the full article from Associated Press Science Writer Randolph E. Schmid ----- Read more » 
As the calendar turns to fall, you might be peeking at your wardrobe to start thinking which summer clothes can go toward the back, and which of the coats should start migrating toward the front.
But in Meacham, Oregon, they might need both the sweaters and shorts in the same week! On Monday, Sept. 15, the city broke their record low with a temperature of 27 degrees. The next day, they broke their record high with an 89 degree reading -- a 62 degree spread in just 36 hours. Read more » 
It's hard to comprehend the devastation that Hurricane Ike brought to the Texas coastline near Galveston, but take a look at this "before" and "after" satellite photos of area near landfall. Read more »
The area in the Midwest around Oklahoma, Nebraska, Missouri and northern Texas is commonly known as "Tornado Alley" due to their frequent tornadoes in the spring, summer and fall. But ever wonder what makes them so vulnerable? Read more »
Sure, it's been sunny since the start of the month, so what better topic than how rain forests are formed? Read more »
With Hurricane Ike in the news Friday, we postponed the usual weekend eye candy to this week. But we hadn't forgotten about it! :)
First, the staples. Two really nice time lapses from Dr. Dale Ireland in Silverdale. This first on, taken Sept. 5, shows some nice jet contrails zigging (is that a word?) by. Read more »
Boating and fishing are an integral part of life in the Northwest, but one of the most important things you need to know before you go out is when high and low tide are.
Not to worry. We have a great site to find the tides for all areas in Oregon. Just go to: www.protides.com 
Hurricanes spin counter-clockwise in the Northern Hemisphere, and clockwise in the Southern Hemisphere due to the Earth's rotation and Coriolis Force.
Low pressure is due to areas of rising air, which then start to spin counter-clockwise due to the Coriolis Force. High pressure is tied to sinking air, which the Coriolis Force turns the air clockwise. But let's say there's a hurricane off the coast of Mexico, and then it roars south toward South America where they would spin the other way. This is sort of like the axiom of what happens if you strap a piece of buttered toast to a cat's back, which way would point down? (And please don't test this at home.) Read more » 
Wow. In reading up on Hurricane Ike, the National Weather Service office in Houston has put out some dire warnings for the area.
But first, take a look at the incredible size of the storm. To give some gauge, I made this graphic that superimposes what Ike would be, relatively speaking, if it were over the Pacific Northwest. Note the storm is large enough that it covers as much area as Washington through Wyoming, with rain bands extending even farther than that. Even though the winds are about on par with a category 2/3 storm, it's the massive storm surge that has forecasters most worried. A big storm like this that has been churning out in the Gulf for so long has whipped up quite a surge of water. Take a look at these warnings issued late Thursday night about the storm surge for the Galveston Bay area: Read more » 
As we saw in my "Summer Sanity Index" last week, this past summer in the Seattle area was just a touch below normal (as in, a little cooler and wetter than normal) while Portland was just about spot-on normal.
Not so for the rest of the United States, which overall was warmer than normal. Here is the summer recap from NOAA: Read more » 
Satellite photos are a staple of TV weathercasts. But most of the time, what you're seeing is not simply a photograph from space. Otherwise, you'd only be able to see the clouds during the daylight hours (or else, that big flash needed to light up the ground would get really annoying at 2 a.m. :) )
Instead, to show clouds anytime, the most common satellite photos use infrared technology, which uses temperature instead of visible light to "see." Since the atmosphere gets colder as you rise in altitude, the satellite can not only detect the cooler clouds from the warmer ocean and land areas day and night, but they can discern high clouds from low clouds. Read more » 
When science and technology collide, it can mean great things. The latest example is the subject of our weekly time waster.
Have you ever want to see every satellite in orbit? Thanks to a programmer at Analytical Graphics, now you can, using the power of Google Earth. Read more » 
It's Friday -- time to find some neato weather photos and videos to hold you through the weekend.
We've got the traditional PTM bloggin' staples -- some great photos by viewers sent into YouNews and some awesome time-lapse videos by our resident videographer Dr. Dale Ireland. But I've found a few new nuggets sure to give you a few chuckles as we kick off the weekend. Read more » |
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Originally from Port Angeles and an Alum of Astoria High School, Scott graduated from the University of Washington in 1994 with a degree in Atmospheric Sciences and has been producing weather reports for broadcast and on the Web ever since.
