On Thursday afternoon, the Tri-Cities Airport reached 110° for the first time in five years, but it didn’t stop there. Preliminary data from the National Weather Service shows the airport in Pasco reached a high of 111°, solidly beating the old record for July 30 which was 107° set in 2003. The Tri-Cities aren’t the […]
Highs around 110° for the Columbia Basin
High pressure will remain in place over the region through Friday. This coupled with southerly flow thanks to a deepening low in the Pacific will amplify already hot temperatures in the Inland Northwest, prompting the National Weather Service to issue an excessive heat warning for the Tri-Cities and surrounding areas. This warning goes into effect […]
Enhanced risk of severe thunderstorms for the Tri-Cities Saturday
The cover photo was taken by Dennis Brown during Saturday morning’s storm. Thanks for sharing, Dennis! Information in this post is accurate as of 8:00 am PDT Saturday. The Storm Prediction Center has upgraded much of Eastern Washington and Oregon to be in an enhanced risk of severe thunderstorms Saturday. This is for areas to […]
GALLERY: Pictures from Monday’s storms in the Columbia Basin
Monday’s storm over the Columbia Basin produced plenty of lightning and heavy rain. Hermiston recorded 0.51″, the Southridge area of Kennewick had 0.58″, and I even received a report from Beck Road south of Kennewick where a grower had 0.84″! On top of this, flooding in Connell prompted the National Weather Service to issue a […]
The Pacific Northwest’s non-Cascade volcano
Lying about 300 miles west of Cannon Beach, Oregon is Axial Seamount. This undersea volcano, which was discovered right around the time Mount St. Helens had its infamous eruption, was the first seamount to be observed in an eruptive state in real-time by instruments on its slopes. That event occurred in 1998, with other eruptions […]
Tropical Storm Arthur makes 2020 the 6th year in a row with an early start to hurricane season
On Saturday, the National Hurricane Center started issuing advisories on a new tropical depression that formed to the east of Florida. Early Sunday morning it was upgraded to a tropical storm, earning the name Arthur and becoming the first named storm of the season. It is headed to the north and is expected to brush […]
Unsettled weather for the first half of the week
There is a chance of showers for the Tri-Cities in place through Wednesday thanks to a deep low pressure system that is lazily moving across the Western United States. Rain chances drop off significantly Sunday night, but we can expect to see periodic light rain and drizzle for the next several days. The presence of […]
Marginal risk for severe thunderstorms in parts of the Columbia Basin Sunday
The Storm Prediction Center has placed parts of the region under a marginal risk for severe thunderstorms on Sunday. For the Columbia Basin, this includes areas that are along and east of a line stretching from Condon and Irrigon north to the Tri-Cities and Othello. More broadly speaking, it also encompasses most of northeastern Oregon, […]
Is Easter in the Tri-Cities usually windy and cool?
This blog post is a response to the following question, which I received over on my Facebook page – Tri-Cities Weather: Mark, I remember all the Easters here in the Tri Cities as being WINDY and COOL. Never weather good enough to dress up nice for Easter Sunday. Is my memory faulty or is it […]
Tornado climatology of the Columbia Basin
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 […]