Meteorological winter officially began for the Northern Hemisphere yesterday, December 1. I think it was obvious in the last 10 days of November that we were getting close; we’ve already seen snow down to 1,500 feet once plus a very chilly and foggy pattern for the valleys on Thanksgiving and Black Friday. December has begun with a strong ridge in the jet stream over the western US, while a cold trough further east is bringing a blast of winter cold…
Greetings everyone! Hope you’ve had a fulfilling summer this year. I returned to the States from southern Europe a little more than a week ago, and spent a few days recovering from jet lag and visiting family. Now it is time to write about the second half of the journey, as well as a few points to reflect on the trip in general. ARRIVING IN CROATIA I’d describe the entire voyage as climbing up and down a hill: it started…
Greetings from Murter, Croatia! I am halfway through my month-long European vacation and wanted to give a quick summary of the places I visited so far. It’s been a tiring and frenzied pace, with only 1-3 days per destination. Fortunately I slowed things down on my 2nd day in Belgrade to recover energy. I’m going to need it this evening at the Defected Croatia house music festival. I’m going to keep every city summary short and sweet with only…
Greetings! It’s been months since I posted, but I wanted to give an update. First of all, I’m leaving for central Europe this Wednesday, July 17! I’ll be visiting Iceland, Czechia, Austria, Hungary, Serbia, Croatia and Italy over a four-week period. It’s been very stressful putting together all the moving parts from a solo, unguided tour across a dozen-plus cities, but the leg work is all but done now. It’s packing time! I’ll try to post at least one…
Five days ago, local meteorologists declared that “winter is over.” There has been considerable debate the past few years about what constitutes “wintry” conditions in our mild temperate climate. Here’s why I feel that winter is truly over: 1. We’re not going to have a significant snowstorm in the lowest elevations of the Pacific Northwest. Truth be told…we probably could have called this back on the 22nd/23rd of February, when it became apparent that the upcoming chilly trough was not…
For more than a week, weather enthusiasts have fixated on the chilly upper-level trough that is currently entering the Pacific Northwest and will stick with us for the coming week. Snow levels will drop to 1000’ at times, and a few slushy flakes could be seen even at the lowest elevations. But I’ve long felt that false spring – here defined as a stretch of warm and (usually) dry weather before March 1 – is a more noteworthy phenomenon…
It’s been a boring first half of February…at least until today, with a wet snowstorm expected in the Columbia River Gorge. Yesterday was a classic “late inversion season” day, not unlike an early-season day in October or early November. Fog formed in early morning, then slowly burned off under the marginal sun angle. The Willamette Valley and parts of Clark County didn’t break out until after 2 pm. Temps only made the upper 40s/low 50s due to north/northesterly flow. We…
The period from Friday, January 12th through the 19th saw a major intrusion of arctic air into much of the Pacific Northwest, except for the southernmost locations like Medford. Now the cold air is gone, but the aftermath of the storms linger. I remember thinking back in November that we probably wouldn’t get a major cold wave this season…or if we did, that it would be in and out within 3-4 days. Instead, PDX has been below 40° F…
It’s been a very stressful week for weather forecasters in the Pacific Northwest. Lots of uncertainty about the upcoming cold spell, but it’s now coming into clear focus. HIGHLIGHTS 1. Cold air arrives tomorrow Friday! Expect east wind to arrive in Portland midday, causing temps to suddenly drop below freezing. 2. There will be some precip tomorrow, but most of it stays south of Salem. But if anything falls over Portland it will be light snow. 3. Serious snow arrives…
“…And,what happened if you watched the mountains in December, it was the lowest snow pack in decades. Ski resorts were unable to open for Christmas or even New Year. People were calling it…this winter was over. And then the weather did DUMPS – they call ‘em dumps. Big massive dumps of snow in Washington and Oregon, and all over.” Ugh…it’s one of those nail-biting weekends in Northwest weather where we don’t know exactly what is going to happen,…