Asemwald Weather

(Source: Cliff Mass Weather Blog ) The Future of National Weather Service Forecast Offices Twenty four hours a day, every day of the year, National Weather Service forecasters are watching the weather.  They make regularly scheduled predictions. They watch for and predict extreme weather. At the coastal offices, there predict ocean (or Great Lake) water levels and waves. Or provide tsunami warnings after major earthquakes. They predict streamflow and water levels of major rivers, and provide guidance for flooding situations They forecast the dispersion of smoke from wildfires and help predict the behavior of major fires. They determine how airports operate and who can fly. The put out warnings when air quality deteriorates. And much more. In a real sense, they are the nation's environmental guardians and are a major jewel of the National Weather Service. But local offices are in trouble:  underfunded, undermanned, and underappreciated.  And there ...

(Source: Cliff Mass Weather Blog ) Sundog! Some thought they predicted the death of kings.   Before the Battle of Mortimer's Cross in 1461, the future King Edward IV tried to convince his troops, frightened by the appears of three suns, that they represented the Holy Trinity and presaged a great victory.  (He won). And during the past days several of you have seen this apparition here in the Northwest and sent me pictures and questions. What am I talking about?     Sundogs.   Also known as  mock suns  or  parhelia . To begin, here are two pictures sent to me today by Lief Zimmerman (the second a blow-up of a portion of the first) And here is a dramatic example in which the sun and two "dogs" are clearly visible. Read more ... Cliff Mass Weather Blog: Sundog!

(Quelle: Cliff Mass Weather Blog ) The "Pause" in Global Warming: What Does it Mean? The media mentions it frequently and global warming skeptics talk of little else:   the fact the global atmospheric temperatures have not gone up significantly during the past 10-15 years. Does this disprove the idea that the planet will warm due to increased CO2 and other greenhouse gases?  Are the global climate models mistaken?  Who are telling the truth:   the skeptics or climate scientists? My take on all this is that a decade of near-constant temperature  does not  show a fatal flaw in the climate science, but it  does  reveal poor communication and occasional overhyping by climate scientists.  And some cynical games by skeptics. So what is all the debate about?  Here is a plot of global temperature from the NASA Goddard web site, showing the annual mean and 5-year running mean temperatures from 1880 to now (actually it sh...

(Source: Cliff  Mass.Weather Blog ) Wind, Wildflowers and Warmth During the spring, the eastern slopes of the Cascades offer a wonderful refuge from the clouds and precipitation west of the Cascade crest, and this time of the year there is a special bonus:  amazing wildflower displays.  But this ideal escape is tempered by one "issue"--at least  in some locations:  strong winds. Yesterday, in search of warmth, sun, and wildflowers I headed with some friends to the hills near Vantage, Washington (see map).  Vantage is probably the most dependably warm, sunny location within two hours drive of Seattle during the spring. Read more ...  Cliff Mass Weather Blog: Wind, Wildflowers and Warmth

(Source: Cliff Mass Weatherblog ) The inmates of Walla Walla State Prison were provided a major meteorological show Thursday night around 7 PM as a severe thunderstorm complex moved through southeast Washington.  Kevin Pogue of the geology department at Whitman College sent me this spectacular image taken at that time, which clearly shows a  shelf cloud  associated with this convection and strongly suggests incipient funnel cloud.  The prison complex is also evident. A line of strong thunderstorms moved across northeast Oregon/southeast Washington late Thursday afternoon/early evening and were starkly evident in the  NWS radar at Pendleton (see below for 6:49 PM).  The heaviest precipitation is shown by the red colors. Read more ... Cliff Mass Weather Blog: Severe Thunderstorm and Funnel Cloud in Walla Walla

(Quelle: Cliff Mass Weather Blog ) The Wettest Place in the U.S. Last week I traveled to an island where more precipitation falls each year than any other location in the U.S.  In fact, some people believe it is the wettest place on earth. The location?    The Hawaiian island of Kauai.   Upon Kauai lies Mt.  Waiʻaleʻale, which reaches 5148 ft and where the annual precipitation is roughly  460 inches a year .  An amazing total that eclipses our Olympic Peninsula, the wettest location in the lower 48 states where a measly 160-180 inches a year falls on the windward slopes. Mount Waialeale is usually engulfed in clouds! Kauai is a roughly circular island at 22N that is usually located in the northeast trade winds (these winds are from the northeast).  Roughly 30 by 30 miles, it has high terrain at its center that descends abruptly to the northwest (Na Pali) coast, and more gradually to the east and southeast (see map). ...

(Source: Cliff Mass Weather Blog ) The media has been full of headlines and stories about a looming gap in weather satellite coverage (see NY Times story  here ) and the U.S. General Accounting Office (GAO) has identified the weather satellite gap as a high-risk threat to the nation (GAO info  here ).   The U.S. weather satellite network has been an essential driver of improvement in numerical weather prediction during the past several decades, but mismanagement of the nation's weather satellite program by NOAA (documented by a number of independent groups such as  this ) has cost the nation billions and threatens  a serious gap in weather satellite coverage.  The biggest problem have delays and cost overruns for the polar-orbiter satellite program, with the costs of replacing the current satellites in the many billions of dollars (weather satellites are not cheap). Read more ... Cliff Mass Weather Blog: COSMIC: Filling the Weather Satellite Gap...