It is with great sadness this morning that we have learned three well known and highly respected storm chasers have lost their lives while chasing near El Reno, Oklahoma on Friday. Tim Samaras and his son Paul, and Carl Young were killed by the wedge tornado that occurred on Friday.
Tour 2 intercepts tornadoes near Granbury, Texas
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Good Tuesday afternoon! Our weather has turned out hot, with temperatures in the lower 90s. Now that moisture levels are much higher today, heat index values have reached the 100 to 105 degree range. If you are working outdoors this afternoon or evening, drink lots of water to stay hydrated. A few storms have developed […]
Good Monday afternoon! Our weather has turned out rather nice, compared to the typically hot and humid July weather. Temperatures remain below normal, and dewpoints are low. If you look out the window, you’ll notice little to no cloud cover over the area; in-fact, it looks like an early fall day. With dry air in […]
: : Cliff Mass Weather Blog This blog provides updated forecasts and comments on current weather or other topics Monday , July 29, 2013 The Serious Fire Season Has Begun in the Northwest : Meteorological Threats Ahead During the past week two major wildfires have initiated and spread to thousand of acres here in the Northwest : nbsp the Mile Marker 28 fire near Satus Pass in south central Washington and the Colockum Tarps fire south of Wenatchee . nbsp And meteorological issues threaten to make the fire situation worse at the end of the . week Sunday morning's visible satellite image at 8AM shows lots of smoke in eastern Washington mainly from the Satus Pass . fire The Colockum Pass fire increased in size during the day see satellite image around 7 PM Sunday below Some thunderstorms
As expected, most areas stayed dry today with the exception of our far southern counties where they had to dodge a few raindrops here and there. A frontal boundary is basically washed out, or has become stationary, to our south and is roughly paralleling Highway 80. Along and south of this feature is where the […]
As of Saturday evening, a few showers remained on the radar across parts of west Alabama, but most areas were dry. Temperatures are actually heading for right around 70 or even a couple of degrees cooler this evening, and some patchy fog is forecast to develop especially in areas that saw rain earlier today and […]
: Cliff Mass Weather Blog This blog provides updated forecasts and comments on current weather or other topics Saturday , July 27, 2013 The Coolest Place in the Pacific Northwest While much of the west side of the Pacific Northwest warmed into the 80s and east of the Cascades into the 90s and higher , one area has gotten cooler and cooler Ground zero for chilling out Portions of the Oregon . coast And strangely , they have cooled while the rest of us have warmed and will warm as the weather cools over the interior this week . nbsp Weird weather here in the Northwest Consider the temperatures at Newport , Oregon , on the central Oregon coast station NWP03, see map below Temperatures had fallen there over the past 10 days to highs of 50-52F , but started warming a bit to a torrid 55F
Good Friday afternoon! Our weather has turned out rather nice on this Friday, with a good supply of sun and temperatures only reaching the upper 80s for highs. As of 4:30pm, high level cirrus clouds are spreading in from the northwest. This is signs of our next storm system, which is due in Alabama on […]
Good Thursday afternoon! Our weather has turned out very nice today, with low humidity and sunny skies. Temperatures remain below normal, with highs in the middle to upper 80s. Dry air will allow temperatures to cool quickly tonight, with temperatures in the middle 80s at 7pm, middle 70s at 10pm and upper 60s around midnight. Overnight […]
Good Wednesday afternoon! Much of Alabama has dealt with more showers and storms today, but unlike yesterday, storms have been more scattered today. As of 5pm, scattered to numerous storms are ongoing across the western half of Alabama and are pushing south to southeast. I expect storm coverage to thin out after midnight tonight, as […]
The National Hurricane Center has upgraded Tropical Depression # 4 into Tropical Storm Dorian this morning. The storm is gradually becoming better organized, but the environment isn’t favorable for this system to become a strong hurricane over the next few days. There’s some dry air near the center, wind shear will be increasing and water […]TROPICAL DEPRESSION FOUR ADVISORY NUMBER 1 NWS NATIONAL HURRICANE CENTER MIAMI FL AL042013 500 AM EDT WED JUL 24 2013 …TROPICAL DEPRESSION FORMS OVER THE EASTERN ATLANTIC… SUMMARY OF 500 AM EDT…0900 UTC…INFORMATION ———————————————- LOCATION…13.9N 28.1W ABOUT 310 MI…500 KM WSW OF THE CAPE VERDE ISLANDS MAXIMUM SUSTAINED WINDS…35 MPH…55 KM/H PRESENT MOVEMENT…WNW […]
Good Tuesday afternoon! As of 4pm, rain is still falling near and south of I-20. The leading edge of the severe storms are now south of our area, located over Choctaw, Clarke and Monroe County. While there is still some rain and lightning across the southern half of our coverage area, the severe mess is […]
: Cliff Mass Weather Blog This blog provides updated forecasts and comments on current weather or other topics Monday , July 22, 2013 Are Nighttime Heat Waves Increasing in the Northwest On Saturday , the Seattle Times ran a front page story about how nighttime heat waves are increasing here in the Northwest during the summer . nbsp Based on an article in the Journal of Applied Meteorology and Climate the story was repeated by media outlets throughout the region . But the more one looks at these results , the more questions come to mind . nbsp This blog will highlight some of my . concerns Before I go further , let me note the region they considered was western Oregon and . Washington Interestingly , the authors found no trend in the extremes of maximum temperature , but only in minimum
: Cliff Mass Weather Blog This blog provides updated forecasts and comments on current weather or other topics Saturday , July 20, 2013 Stratus Secrets Day after day we have experienced the same pattern of stratus developing overnight west of the Cascade crest , with clearing during the morning . nbsp But this morning we had superstratus thicker , slower to burn off , and accompanied by fog and drizzle in some locations like north Seattle The enhanced stratus this morning was associated with stronger onshore flow at low levels , with a deep marine layer capped by a strong inversion see plot at Quillayute Washington , line on right is temperature , on left dew point when the lines are on top of each other the air is saturated The vertical coordinate is height in terms of pressure 850 is
: , , Cliff Mass Weather Blog This blog provides updated forecasts and comments on current weather or other topics Thursday , July 18, 2013 Nighttime Heat Wave Hits Victoria , Paradise Melt-Out , and a Very Dry July Nearly every summer day Northwest temperatures follow a familiar routine , with temperatures hitting a minimum around 6-7 AM and rising until roughly 5 PM , followed by falling temperatures during the evening and morning . hours But something very different hit the western suburbs of Victoria B.C . Wednesday morning , with temperatures rapidly rising around midnight . nbsp How could this be Let's start with a plot of temperatures at Victoria's Lakewood Elementary School during the last week . nbsp Yes , temperatures are in Celsius 30C=86F , 20 F-68F , for those metrically
: : Cliff Mass Weather Blog This blog provides updated forecasts and comments on current weather or other topics Tuesday , July 16, 2013 The Unusual May Happen : Summer Showers and Thunderstorms Later Today It has been dry so long around here that many of you have forgotten what precipitation is like . nbsp But according to our models . and particularly new technology rapid refresh models . we might see some showers and thunderstorms before the day is . up And the threat of lightning-caused fires is . real The U.S . is probably the world leader in something called rapid-update , intermittent data assimilation . a fancy way of saying a version of numerical weather prediction where every hour new weather observations are brought in and a new generally short term forecast is made . nbsp Every
: . Cliff Mass Weather Blog This blog provides updated forecasts and comments on current weather or other topics Monday , July 15, 2013 A Revised Weather Improvement Act That Would Radically Improve U.S . Weather Prediction As I noted in an earlier blog the House Science Committee is now considering the Weather Forecasting Improvement Act of 2013 There are some good things in this bill , some problems that need to be addressed , and several critical issues that are simply not . considered I believe strongly that an an improved and revised bill could potentially greatly improve weather prediction in the U.S . and could be supported by both sides of the aisle In fact , I can think of few subjects that could more readily garner bipartisan support in . Congress So let me go out on a limb and
: Cliff Mass Weather Blog This blog provides updated forecasts and comments on current weather or other topics Saturday , July 13, 2013 Why so few big thunderstorms in the Northwest Day after day this time of the year there are stories of big thunderstorms and severe convection in the eastern two-thirds of the U.S . nbsp Tornadoes , hail , flash floods , supercell thunderstorms , squall lines , and most recently derechos . nbsp Cumulonimbus clouds that can get to 40, 50 or 60 thousand feet or . more In comparison , the Pacific Northwest is a thunderstorm and severe thunderstorm desert . nbsp Below is a map showing the number of days with thunderstorms a year . nbsp Zero to 10 days gray color over Washington and coastal portions of Oregon and California . nbsp Kind of . sad Not only do we
: Cliff Mass Weather Blog This blog provides updated forecasts and comments on current weather or other topics Thursday , July 11, 2013 Forecast for the Upcoming Winter A number of you have asked about the upcoming winter : nbsp can we get a fix on its general character For winter forecasts , you got to wait until one gets sufficiently close . and we there now . nbsp Sort of like waiting until you see the whites of its meteorological . eyes Why do we need to wait To be honest there is only one useful tool for predicting seasonal weather around here and that is the correlation between El Nino and La Nina and our winter weather . nbsp The cycle from El Nino , through neutral years , to La Nina is called ENSO--El Nino Southern Oscillation . nbsp The problem is that there is a spring barrier
: Cliff Mass Weather Blog This blog provides updated forecasts and comments on current weather or other topics Tuesday , July 9, 2013 Boring Weather Reveals Hidden Weather Signals The weather of the past week has been BORING . nbsp Day after day with the western lowlands warming into the mid-70s to low 80s , no storms , modest winds , lots of sun , and no rain except for thunderstorms east of the Cascade crest . nbsp Some low clouds in the . morning No wonder the Weather Channel is avoiding . us The visible satellite imagery at 7:15 PM Tuesday shows some offshore clouds and a few convective showers over the eastern Cascade slopes and southeastern BC . nbsp But boring can also be revealing , exposing weather phenomena normally obscured by active . weather Let me prove this to you . Question
: : Cliff Mass Weather Blog This blog provides updated forecasts and comments on current weather or other topics Sunday , July 7, 2013 Climate Versus Weather Prediction : Do We Need to Rebalance Last week there was a hearing before the House Subcommittee on the Environment regarding a piece of legislation , The Weather Forecasting Improvement Act of 2013 that has the goal : to To prioritize and redirect NOAA resources to a focused program of investment on near-term , affordable , and attainable advances in observational , computing , and modeling capabilities to deliver substantial improvement in weather forecasting and prediction of high impact weather events , such as tornadoes and hurricanes , and for other purposes . Sponsored by the Republican side of the committee , the goal of this
: : Cliff Mass Weather Blog This blog provides updated forecasts and comments on current weather or other topics Friday , July 5, 2013 Fireworks Smoke : Air Quality Alert Well , it was not quite as bad as Beijing during the winter , but air quality really degraded around the Northwest last night as massive amounts of fireworks were . deployed A number of air quality sites measured values of small particulates at unhealthy levels , particularly for those vulnerable to their effects asthmatics , those with heart or lung disease , etc . I was standing along the shores of Lake Washington last night and a smoky , sulfurous miasma was evident , both from commercial fireworks and from the numerous individual displays . And this is with fireworks being ILLEGAL in much of the area I believe this