charlie

Visibility was decent in Portland over the weekend (especially Saturday) but it's much worse today.

Wrote a blog on how the smoke tempered highs today... it never really mixed out as much as the PQR AFD was predicting. http://charlie.weathertogether.net/2017/08/03/smoke-keeps-a-lid-on-record-highs/

I just finished writing a blog up on the current status/predicted evolution of the El Nino in the tropical Pacific. The abstract: Nino 1+2 are experiencing El Nino-like warmth, but this warmth has not spread to Nino 3.4 yet, and the Walker Circulation is actually more representative of what we'd expect during a La Nina, with enhanced convection over the Western Pacific. Dynamical models are in surprisingly good agreement that a weak El Nino will develop in the summer, but statistical models are not sold on the idea (they generally have a tougher time with the spring predictability barrier though). http://charlie.weathertogether.us/2017/04/18/could-el-nino-return-this-summer/

Check out how long, skinny, and well-defined the front currently offshore is! It doesn't look as impressive on satellite, but the 500 hPa vorticity field is certainly eye-catching. This front has tapped into some subtropical moisture, so that could be the reason it is surprisingly well-defined.

Yeah, we can thank our huge ridge over the North Pacific for that.

No problem Andrew! Higher elevations look to add to their snow totals this week... looks like over 10 inches of liquid-equivalent precip in Klamath Range/Sierra Nevada over the next 10 days.

Here's the lates SWE from SNOTEL sites... looks slightly above average over WA/OR, well-above average for CA. But I agree - we don't want a quick meltoff.

Yeah, it's beautiful. I can't wait to see how green everything is in a month or two!

Thanks Jesse! Glad to be here. I work with IbrChris at, well, Ibr (now called Avangrid). I heard the first robin of spring two days ago in Portland. Last year, the first robin I heard was on Valentine's Day, and that was in Seattle. With such a cold winter, the birds are definitely coming in a little later.

Yeah, same. Things are well behind were they were the past two years. Although I may be starting to get some hay fever - either that or I'm coming down with a cold.