Weather reports on whatever I decide to report on.
Strong El Niño conditions were observed over the winter of 2023-24, leading to long lasting periods of split flow in the jet stream aimed at Western North America. This is a typical El Niño pattern, where the northern split persistently aims storms at southeast Alaska and the southern branch aims at California. Despite this, Oregon […]
Toward the end of the Last Glacial Maximum, catastrophic flooding surged down parts of the Columbia River watershed as natural dams creating large lakes failed. Some originated from Glacial Lake Missoula, which was created by a large dam of ice in Montana and Idaho that periodically failed. These, often termed Missoula Floods are probably the […]
This post focuses on tornado statistics in the Tri-Cities and Columbia Basin. For specific details about the Richland tornado that happened on March 31, head over to this AgWeatherNet article that I contributed to. Tornadoes are a rare occurrence in the Columbia Basin, but they aren’t unheard of. This is something that we were reminded […]
Sunday’s wind storm certainly lived up to expectations and in some cases even exceeded them. As usual, Rattlesnake Mountain brought home the prize for highest wind gust – 82 mph. People rarely go up there, though, so what about in the lowlands? Helix, which is north of Pendleton, recorded a gust of 74 mph. This […]
They say hindsight is always 2020. Well, since it is now 2020, let’s take advantage of it to take a look back at 2019! These weather events won’t necessarily be the most damaging, but they are the ones that caught my eye the most throughout the year. Here they are in chronological order: February/March – […]
This post has been updated with data through March 15. With snow still on the ground following our exceptional last month and a half, I thought it would be fun to list the records we broke or got close to breaking. These records are for the Tri-Cities and are considered unofficial. I’ve listed the old […]
March is a beautiful month. Highs in the 50s, lows in the 30s. Warm enough to be able to go outside without more than a sweater but definitely not close to the heat we experience in the summer. That is, except for this year. So far this month, we have broken four daily record lows […]
Last year’s hurricane season was definitely one for the record books. While national focus on the affected areas has waned, cleanup still continues in many regions. Yesterday marked the last day that Puerto Ricans could apply for assistance (archive) from FEMA. In the Houston area, the Houston Chronicle reports (archive) renovations continue at the Houston […]
Author’s Note: This part of a weekly series on geology for a class I am taking this semester at BYU-Idaho. This week’s prompt required students to look at earthquake patterns in the area they live in. Other posts from this assignment can be found under the “Geology 111” category. Earlier this semester, I wrote an […]
Author’s Note: This part of a weekly series on geology for a class I am taking this semester at BYU-Idaho. This week’s prompt required students to interview somebody who had firsthand experience with a volcano. I interviewed my grandparents, who lived in Kennewick, Wash. when Mount St. Helens erupted in 1980. Other posts from this […]