Unusually Cool Weather in the West Means Lots of Wind Energy in the East
Updated: 2023-05-30 04:34:00
: Cliff Mass Weather Blog This blog discusses current weather , weather prediction , climate issues , and current events May 29, 2023 Unusually Cool Weather in the West Means Lots of Wind Energy in the East This is a good time to charge up your electric car . particularly during the . evenings The reason Unusually cool weather is forecast for the next few days in western Washington and Oregon . nbsp Seattle will be firmly into cool , marine air the next few days , with highs only reaching the LOWER . 60s In contrast , it will remain warm over the Columbia Basin , with 80s for the first part of the week , climbing into the 90s by week's . end This pattern is very favorable for producing healthy westerly winds along the eastern slopes of the Cascades and across the wind farms east of the
Happy Sunday! The weekend for many of us isn’t over quite yet, and the beautiful weather continues right into Memorial Monday. In fact, this is one of the more pleasant Memorial Day’s we’ve had in several years. Mostly sunny skies, comfortable temperatures in the low 80s, and no storms to worry about. The nice stretch […]
The Joint Polar Satellite System (JPSS) constellation currently consists of three satellites that provide environmental monitoring around the globe and datasets to users. The three satellites are the Suomi-National Polar-orbiting Partnership (S-NPP), the National Oceanic and Atmospheric Administration – 20 … Continue reading →
: Cliff Mass Weather Blog This blog discusses current weather , weather prediction , climate issues , and current events May 25, 2023 What does it mean when you see Castles in the Sky During the last week , we have seen a number of beautiful examples of mid-level cumulus convection , technically known as altocumulus castellanus or less technically known as castles in the sky The sky on Saturday evening in north Seattle was . stunning And earlier that day one could view cumulus cells forming several thousand feet above the surface image from the Seattle PanoCam Below is a nice example of such clouds near the UW taken by cloud expert Art Rangno decades . ago Altocumulus castellanus clouds provide potent hints about what is happening in the atmosphere , as well as potent information for
: : Cliff Mass Weather Blog This blog discusses current weather , weather prediction , climate issues , and current events May 20, 2023 Meteorological Role Reversal : Much Wetter East of the Cascade Crest It is simply . unnatural Contradictory to local weather wisdom . nbsp Contradictory to the normal state of . affairs But it's true . nbsp For a number of days , it has been much wetter east of the Cascade crest than over western Washington and . Oregon Consider the total rainfall over the past three days see below Numerous precipitation reports on the eastern side of the Cascades and only a few precipitation events over western Oregon and . Washington Most of the precipitation over eastern Oregon and Washington was the result of convection--thunderstorms . nbsp To show this , here are the
: Cliff Mass Weather Blog This blog discusses current weather , weather prediction , climate issues , and current events May 18, 2023 Wildfire Smoke Forecast As an experiment , let's do a wildfire smoke forecast for Washington State , including the potential impacts at the . surface The satellite image this morning at 6:31 AM was scary , with the southern smoke boundary just south of Olympia . nbsp Low clouds were along the coast and some higher convective clouds were over Idaho . nbsp Look closely and you can see the shadows of the Idaho clouds on the smoke . plume The smoke appears most opaque in the early morning and evening when the sun angles are low . nbsp Roughly 3 hours later than the above picture the smoke is more transparent if you look carefully the southern boundary of the
: Cliff Mass Weather Blog This blog discusses current weather , weather prediction , climate issues , and current events May 17, 2023 Dense Wildfire Smoke Plume Reaches Washington State A dense smoke plume from large wildfires in Alberta has reached the Pacific . Northwest The view from the Seattle PanoCam , looking northwest around 7 AM this morning , clearly shows the southern edge of the smoke . cloud And the visible satellite imagery around the same time displays the massive smoke cloud extending southward over Washington State . nbsp You can also see low clouds over the Pacific , which extended inland into southwest . Washington As the smoke cloud moved in , visibility around Seattle has declined and the Cascades are now in the . haze Fortunately air quality at the surface in.gif)
: Cliff Mass Weather Blog This blog discusses current weather , weather prediction , climate issues , and current events May 13, 2023 It's the Wind Not the Heat There has been a lot of talk about the warmth of this weekend , but the REAL story is about the winds , not the temperatures . nbsp Unusually strong easterly . winds Today was a warm , but pleasant day for many , with Seattle getting up to the mid-80s away from the water , while highs hit around 90 from Olympia down into the Willamette . Valley But the warmth was mitigated by a wonderful breeze in many locations , with the high winds today reaching around 20 mph over western Washington Oregon and 30-35 mph east of the Cascades . nbsp The weather situation today and tomorrow are very different from the major heatwave events and that
: , , Cliff Mass Weather Blog This blog discusses current weather , weather prediction , climate issues , and current events May 11, 2023 Heatwaves , Duststorms , and More We have some interesting weather . ahead The key features will be the development of a strong upper-level ridge over British Columbia and a low sliding westward across southern Oregon see upper-level map for 8 PM Sunday Predicted 500 hPa Height at 8 PM Sunday There are some suggestions in the media and a few blogs that this situation is like June 2021. This is not correct . nbsp The shape , size , intensity and location of the high are different and much less intense and the low center was absent in 2021. Subtle differences are . everything So let's go through the next few days in . detail Today Thursday has been near
: Cliff Mass Weather Blog This blog discusses current weather , weather prediction , climate issues , and current events May 09, 2023 The Upcoming Spring Heatwave During most Mays in the Northwest , there is a several-day period of warm weather , driven by the strengthening sun and a favorable atmospheric circulation high pressure and offshore-directed winds During such periods , the western lowlands can surge well into the 80s , while the Columbia Basin warms well into the . 90s Such a period is ahead starting this . weekend Just to give you some perspective , below is a plot of the warmest temperature each year in Seattle for the period 5-25 May . nbsp Most but not all years have a least one May day above 80F , with a number of years seeing temperatures surge about 85F . nbsp
: Cliff Mass Weather Blog This blog discusses current weather , weather prediction , climate issues , and current events May 07, 2023 How Does the Strengthening El Nino Influence Summer Weather in the Northwest I have gotten a number of emails wondering about the impacts of the developing El Nino on our summer weather . nbsp And several media outlets have already suggested that El Nino will cause enhanced heatwaves around the world . so folks are a bit worried some samples below The Bottom Line : nbsp The correlation of El Nino warmer than normal water in the central and eastern tropical Pacific on Northwest summers is quite weak . nbsp The El Nino signal tends to increase after January 1. NOAA provides a number of graphics and studies that have taken on this . question For example , nbsp
: . Cliff Mass Weather Blog This blog discusses current weather , weather prediction , climate issues , and current events May 05, 2023 The Northwest Has Been Having a Thunderfest Why We Can Blame this on California Low Pressure . Thousands of lightning strikes have hit the Pacific Northwest during the past several days . nbsp A stormfest of lightning Lightning over the Kitsap Peninsula Picture courtesy of Adam Sapek For the 24-h ending at 1 AM this morning Friday lightning was widespread over the entire region each or sign is an individual lightning stroke During the previous day , eastern Oregon and Washington enjoyed the lightning shows Wednesday had a strong band crossing northern Idaho and more over southwest Oregon While Tuesday had lightning filling southwest Washington and western 
: Cliff Mass Weather Blog This blog discusses current weather , weather prediction , climate issues , and current events May 03, 2023 A High-Amplitude Atmospheric Wave Threatened Aviation at Sea-Tac Airport You would not have wanted to land at Seattle-Tacoma Airport between 2 and 4 AM on Tuesday morning . nbsp observations shown below At 1:53 AM , the winds were from the south at 9 knots 10 mph At 2:42 AM the winds switched to north-northeast with gusts to 37 knots 9 minutes late 2 : 51 AM the winds turned back to the south , with gusts to 37 . knots At 3:43 AM the winds switched to the northeast at 27 knots At a station near the airport , winds gusted to 63 . mph An aircraft either landing or taking off could have had a dangerous wind reversal and loss of lift . nbsp Fortunately , this is