Karl's Weather Discussions

  Greetings world!  The month of September has been a rough one here in the Pacific Northwest.  Western Oregon endured what is most likely the worst outbreak of wildfires in recorded history.  The historic easterly windstorm on Sept. 7-9, resulted in the conflagration of FIVE “megafires” over and west of the Cascade Crest:  the Lionshead fire near and west of Warm Springs; the Riverside Fire in the upper Clackamas Valley; the Beachie Creek Fire in and around Detroit; the Holiday…

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Oh what a weird and dark and admittedly apocalyptic time, this is turning out to be!  I’m going to save the monster wildfire scenario for another day, when things are calmed down a little more. Needless to say, many of us know someone who has evacuated or lost their home because of these fires.  The loss is horrendous: nearly a million acres of Oregon’s majestic forests no longer exist.  Towns like Detroit and Phoenix (near Ashland) are all but wiped…

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Late last night, I had the unfortunate mishap of wandering to another website WITHOUT first saving my blog-in-progress.  More than an hour of work was instantly lost.   I’m not going to make the same mistake again. But this blog will be shorter than originally planned.   The big story in our September weather picture has shifted from extreme heat, to extreme wind and fire danger.  Basically the cold airmass over the Rockies and Plains beginning tomorrow, is going to come…

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Hard to believe that September and “meteorological” fall have arrived. Summer 2020 was a surprisingly boring one, as far as climatology goes:  Temperatures were very near normal for the month of June, and just slightly on the warm side for July and August.  Overall it was very slightly warmer than normal…or if you prefer, almost exactly in line with the expected “new normal” for our changing climate. The first 10-12 days of September are going to be anything but normal,…

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