Pacific Northwest Weather

Garnetcat5 · #3841 Postby **Garnetcat5** » Mon Mar 28, 2005 3:11 pm

Anyone familiar with the Medford OR area? Have family there and Uncle was very concerned about the fish run this spring due to drought. All I know is I went there for the first time last month and found it to be a beautiful area...I am asking myself why I live in Houston where I can't breathe half the time. I had never been to the Pacific NW region and now I can't wait to go again!

#3842 Postby **PurdueWx80** » Mon Mar 28, 2005 3:34 pm

I agree Garnet - I visited the PacNW several summers ago and absolutely fell in love with the clean air, nature and most of the urban areas of Seattle. As soon as I can find a job out there, that's where I'm headed!!

This rain should definitely help the salmon/trout/fish runs this spring/summer, but they are gonna have to get some good snowpack in the next couple of weeks to keep the water flowin' all summer. The heaviest precipitation may stay in western WA and British Columbia, Canada, so I'm not sure how Medford will fare in all this.

TT-SEA · #3843 Postby **TT-SEA** » Mon Mar 28, 2005 3:35 pm

The Pacific Northwest is definitely a beautiful area of the country.

Medford, Oregon is very pretty... although a little too hot and dry in the summer for me. But I think the recent weather pattern shift is reducing the threat of drought across the entire region. I know they got lots of rain and mountain snow down there recently.

Here in Western Washington the summer months are almost always perfect... pleasant temperatures and no humidity. The air is much cleaner up here as well (particluarly compared to Houston). I will now get ripped by other Storm2K members in the Seattle area for letting you in our little secret!!

snow_wizzard · #3844 Postby **snow_wizzard** » Mon Mar 28, 2005 4:40 pm

How could you TT?

We have 44 degrees at 1:30pm! Now that is chilly for this time of year.

AnthonyC · #3845 Postby **AnthonyC** » Mon Mar 28, 2005 4:54 pm

It's a windy day...but if current forecasts are correct, nothing compared to what late tonight/tomorrow morning could be like. Tonight's storm has the potential to do something that happened in October of 2003 and April of 2004. BUT...many factors must come together to make this work. First, surface winds and upper level winds must be travelling in the same direction...this way maximum acceleration and mixing can occur. Second, the area of low pressure must make landfall in a precise location and then travel east of the cascades...thus you have a strong pressure gradient...west/east...that shoots down the strait of Juan Defuca. As most know, this is a localized event but can bring VERY strong winds that last for a short duration. I'm telling you dude, the October 2003 event was amazing...it went from 15 mph gusts to 65 mph gusts within a 25 minute period. The strong winds only lasted 2 hours, but power was out for 12 hours and there was alot of damage. Just something to watch.

Anthony

#3846 Postby **PurdueWx80** » Mon Mar 28, 2005 5:05 pm

Anthony, was this the same storm in Oct 2003 that gave Seattle their all-time daily record rainfall of 5.03"? That was an amazing 7-day stretch of weather out there - I remember watching it closely. Precipitable water values (a measure of how much water vapor can be condensed into liquid) were as high as they are in the sub-tropics - near 1.75"! I remember several record crests on area rivers that time as well - due mostly to the 2 feet of rain recorded at many high peaks. What's weird is the Oct '03 event occurred before your typical wet season begins - it almost sounds like you'll see something similar in the next few weeks that will come after it's traditionally over.

AnthonyC · #3847 Postby **AnthonyC** » Mon Mar 28, 2005 5:17 pm

Purdue...

That was not the same system...but the entire month of October was wild!! We started with a record daily rainfall in the beginning of the month, and ended with some lowland snow on Halloween.

Anthony

R-Dub · #3848 Postby **R-Dub** » Mon Mar 28, 2005 5:20 pm

TT-SEA wrote:I will now get ripped by other Storm2K members in the Seattle area for letting you in our little secret!!

TT!!!

A blustery but dry day up here in the LK Goodwin area, cool though! Only 45.7 degrees at 2:20PM

W13 · #3849 Postby **W13** » Mon Mar 28, 2005 6:13 pm

Wow, this is weather I enjoy!

It is only 41 F (after an official high of 43 F) here as of 3:10 PM and dropping. We have had 0.11" of rain since midnight, and it has been fairly breezy throughout the day. We have steady winds of around 10-15mph with a gust so far to 20mph.

Tonight sure looks like some fun. How do you think we will fair, snow_wizzard?

AnthonyC · #3850 Postby **AnthonyC** » Mon Mar 28, 2005 6:23 pm

Latest NWS discussion mentions nothing about a high wind event tonight/tomorrow morning. I guess all ingredients aren't coming together...should have figured. Gale warnings are posted for all waters ahead of the cold front. Still could be interesting...I just want a high wind warning posted!! lol.

Anthony

snow_wizzard · #3851 Postby **snow_wizzard** » Mon Mar 28, 2005 6:26 pm

Holy Moly are the passes getting clobbered now! At White Pass the visibility is very low and the road is snow covered. Steven's and Snoqualmie are also getting rather heavy snowfall. The temperature on all of the passes have fallen sharply this afternoon and are all freezing or below.

The trajectory of the jetstream today has heavily favored south King County to get most of the heavy shower actitivity.

At my place it has been gloomy, wet, and windy all day with temperatures WAY below normal for this time of year. Oh yeah baby!

W13 · #3852 Postby **W13** » Mon Mar 28, 2005 6:38 pm

AnthonyC wrote:Latest NWS discussion mentions nothing about a high wind event tonight/tomorrow morning. I guess all ingredients aren't coming together...should have figured. Gale warnings are posted for all waters ahead of the cold front. Still could be interesting...I just want a high wind warning posted!! lol.

Anthony

You never know, they may wait until the last possible minute to jump on board, just as they did on the storm last week. :roll:

R-Dub · #3853 Postby **R-Dub** » Mon Mar 28, 2005 6:55 pm

We already have SW winds gusting to near 25MPH right now. Still dry though.

Like Anthony says though, NWS very vauge on pretty much everything in the afternoon discussion. It has been YEARS since NWS got a windstorm right! They issue a wind warning, and nothing happens. They mention windy but not warning conditions and half the time and we end up getting nailed!!

The last windstorm I remember that was predicted and happened was the NOV 1998 windstorm.

Seems like they are always suprised when it happens, just like the weekend before last.

Currently 44 degrees, partly cloudy, and windy.

TT-SEA · #3854 Postby **TT-SEA** » Mon Mar 28, 2005 7:24 pm

Yeah... the mountain passes look awesome right now.

You can tell the temperature has fallen quite a bit by looking at the road surfaces.

Well... once again North Bend is in a favored rain location today. Our total so far here is at .80 for the day. It looks like the rainfall totals for today were much more random than the weekend storm.

Anyways... we have now received an amazing 4.3 inches of rain since Saturday morning. I would say my estimate of 5 inches for the week might be low since we will probably get another inch by tomorrow.

Since March 16th (12 days ago) we have received 6.8 inches of rain here in North Bend. That is after getting almost nothing for the previous 2 months. Now thats a pattern change!!

Oh... and its raining now!!

AnthonyC · #3855 Postby **AnthonyC** » Mon Mar 28, 2005 8:10 pm

That's a mighty nice surface low off the Vancouver Island coast. Unfortunately it's heading into the northern tip of the island eliminating the chance of a widespread windstorm.

Anthony

andycottle · #3856 Postby **andycottle** » Mon Mar 28, 2005 8:52 pm

Randy...

The Seattle NWS sends out a High Wind watch/warning for the general area of most concern. So while it may not be WINDY in my or your area, they are issuing that watching and or warning to inform the public in the event that the High winds comes too your area or the area warned so that we can prepare for GUSTY winds. Hope that gives a little insight.

-- Andy

andycottle · #3857 Postby **andycottle** » Mon Mar 28, 2005 10:27 pm

Viewing tonights GFS along with the MM5 model, a 989MB low should just barely clip the far Northern tip of Vancouver Island shortly after midnight tonight. So while there may be some STRONG winds up on the Northern end on the Island, our winds will be fairly weak through the night, except for the North Wa coast and enterences to Stright of Juan De fuca where gales will be quite strong....per Seattle NWS. Now during the day Tuesday, should see the cold front come during the late morning and into early afternoon hours. And after the frontal passage, could see some gusty breezy winds in the late afternoon, the good possiblity of a PSCZ as 850MB winds will be westerd at 40kts and temp of near -2C. However, airmass should start to stablelize a bit, as heights rise slowly through the day tomorrow. So if we get any T-Storm showers, they will die down by sunset.

In the extened outlook...30 - 3rd of April, look for numorous showers at times and continued cool temps.

-- Andy

snow_wizzard · #3858 Postby **snow_wizzard** » Mon Mar 28, 2005 10:46 pm

I am still betting that some areas are going to see stronger winds than the NWS is saying tomorrow. There is no way the strongest winds in the Puget Sound region are going to be 15 - 25. There should easily be some gusts to 40+ south of Seattle. The strongest winds north of Seattle will be near Admiralty Inlet and the eastern Strait. In those areas we should W to NW winds up to 45 at times. I would not rule out some unexpectedly strong winds just about anywhere. The pressure gradients are going to awfully tight!

As for snow in the mountains...there is going to be a ton! If the C zone focuses on the central Cascades, as expected, Steven's and Snoqualmie should see 12 - 18 inches easy. The front itself will bring widespread snowfall around 6 inches to all of the mountain areas (above 2500 feet). The showers behind the front will be much trickier to call.

The unseasonable cold air following the front will bring a wide variety of wild weather to the lowlands tomorrow afternoon! We should certainly see thundershowers, hail, and maybe some wet snow in any convergence zone that may develop. Even outside of the zone, things could be interesting. Yet another unseasonably cold air mass will invade later in the week for an encore performance! I am really starting to like this pattern. I loved the high temp being 10 degrees below normal today (at least in Covington).

andycottle · #3859 Postby **andycottle** » Mon Mar 28, 2005 10:53 pm

Some what of a showery day here, but with also some sunbreaks. My high today was 49 with a low of 41. .04" of rain since 9pm last night.
-- Andy

R-Dub · #3860 Postby **R-Dub** » Mon Mar 28, 2005 10:59 pm

TT I Still haven't broken the 1" mark since Sat morning!! Still sitting at .95" :eek:

Current temp 42.1 degrees and mostly Cloudy

Goodnight!

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