the_convergence_zone

17 minutes ago, Front Ranger said:

The Puget Sound region has seen 80+ this time of year more than a century ago.

Quillayute isn’t in the Puget Sound and they have never seen an 80 in March until today. Even 70 is an extreme rarity this early in the year, they doubled their count of 70+ prior to St Patrick’s day in the past 2 days. 

73/45 here. It was a little warm for my liking in the afternoon. I had to find some shade. It’s pretty much a given that a ridge equals record highs these days. 

57/42 here today. Not particularly warm but the midday sun was awesome. 

6 minutes ago, Front Ranger said:

Yeah, I think most the people up there have their own plows, too.

The fun of Colorado is that entire snowpack can be erased in about 24 hours if the winds are right. 

3 minutes ago, TT-SEA said:

Comparatively chilly day in Seattle compared to places away from the water.    Its warmer at Snoqualmie Pass than it is at many of the stations in the city of Seattle.   

 

I've hit 57 so far. My station is near the 56 in West Seattle. Pretty common for me to be one of the colder spots on a day like this, I need that wind to swing around to the east for me to get warm. 

48 minutes ago, Port Angeles Foothiller said:

I love where I live. That's what you don't understand. Its normal as an orchard grower to be unhappy about an early bloom busted by cold. If i'm lucky some of the early bloomers (cherry/plum/peach) will won't bust their nut this weekend. I have hardy varieties, so even if they do some snow cover could protect them. Might just be an off year due to lack of pollinators at this time. It happens about 50/50, but still a bummer. Cost of doing business on my plot. 

Yep, basically every fruit grower in central/eastern Washington is on edge this time of year. A cold snap after a warm spell can be disastrous.

Fortunately the absurd current global SST anomalies probably have a big natural variability component that is dominating over some of the other Tonga/ship aerosol theories, but it's still bad when the SSTs in the Atlantic MDR are already at their June normals in March. 

Just now, Timmy Supercell said:

If they're brown, stinkbug is the correct name (but they don't usually "stink" lol)

Boxelder bugs look sort of like fireflies.

Correct, stinkbugs. They do stink terribly if you threaten or squash them. I find multiple ones in my house every week, I also found a ton of them overwintering in my outdoor furniture when I was cleaning it out today. 

Does anyone else have absurd numbers of stinkbugs whenever the weather gets warm? How do I get rid of them? 

1 hour ago, Front Ranger said:

Yep. Interesting to see the different pockets throughout the West.

That map must be using some sort of crappy data source LOL. Or maybe hail just doesn't like to fall in Alabama. 

Edit @iFred just saw your comment above 

8 minutes ago, bainbridgekid said:

That's mostly because in CO the hail has a mile less time to melt on its way down right? Guessing it probably hails a LOT 5,000 feet above D.C. too.

Giant hail will make it to the ground if it forms. It doesn't melt that fast. Colorado gets more graupel and pea-sized hail than the east coast because of the temperature profiles and less air resistance, but for severe hail the main thing is that the storm modes are different. Convection grows upscale as it progresses eastward and the organized clusters produce more wind and less hail and tornadoes. 

1 minute ago, Phil said:

Interesting how hail is the primary severe wx phenomenon out west, but as you travel east it becomes less frequent and is replaced by high wind.

Upscale growth! 

I think most people like DST the way it is but hate the abrupt change. I never hear any complaints in June or December. Therefore, my suggestion is that the clocks move forward by 1 minute per day in March/April and back by 1 minute per day in October/November. Nobody will even notice that there was a change unless they have clocks that aren't connected to WiFi, which is becoming increasingly rare. Even my microwave updates itself. 

4 minutes ago, Sunriver Snow Zone said:

I also got to see that eclipse in Wyoming, on the summit of the Grand Teton, there were maybe 20-30 people up there which is by far the most I've see on thst summit, typically it's no more than 5 people. Seeing the shadow of the eclipse move towards you is an unforgettable experience, if any of yall ever have a chance to see an eclipse ontop of a mountain, do it. 

Here's a few pics, which does ZERO justice for the view. Solar eclipse pics are probably the thing that looks the least like it actually does in person.

You had the same idea that I did! I went to Sawtooth Lake in Idaho with my buddy. We climbed up to the top of one of the mountains around the lake. There were supposed to be massive crowds but it ended up being about as many people as a typical summer weekend. Maybe a dozen up on this mountain but you could hear the cheers echoing through the wilderness when totality hit. I agree that no picture really describes it. One of the coolest things I’ve ever seen.

I’m a bit bummed that I’ll miss the upcoming one but the timing and locations are less than ideal. New England was intriguing but the risk of cloud cover is too high to pick a single location. 

Just now, Phil said:

I thought your storm patterns involved offshore ULLs? Figured that would draw smoke in, if anything.

Our smoke is so heavily dependent on fire location and time of year that it's hard to draw general conclusions. That pattern would be favorable for clearing smoke if the fires are in BC but unfavorable if the fires are in CA/southern OR. 

Thunderstorms between July 4 and Labor Day are nothing but trouble for fires IMO. 

16 minutes ago, iFred said:

Nah. I was involved with two different forums that required some kind of donation drive or squabbling over things like adverts and memberships. The bills average ~150 a month and I can cover it without any issue, so that can rule out a lot of drama. The real reason why some of the upgrades have dragged on or why @hawkstwelve doesn't have SSH access yet is that my time seems to be feast or famine, especially with a kid, a job at FAANG Co, and a side project/startup/fever dream.

I still have a kanban board with the following:
- recovering deleted posts from the April 2023 forum hack
- merging westernwx.info forum
- cleaning up storage (unlimited storage is the largest driver of costs, thats why I don't like it when Phil uploads a 40 minutes 8k iPhone video of flurries)
- setting up YVR/SEA/PDX High Res WRF and local Graphcast
- write a "Looking back on 10 years" post

I'll get to this sooner or later.

I respect this, I've felt the same about not wanting to deal with revenue streams from side projects. Then it becomes a "side hustle" which makes it feel too much like work to me, with obligations and deadlines and stuff. 

It's awesome what you have accomplished...I have bits and pieces of code written for various climatological analyses that I have done but have never gotten around to turning it into something organized that can run in the background. 

1 minute ago, RaleighHillsRunner said:

What if you like baseball but aren’t a Mariners fan?  

Mariners fans don't even like the Mariners. 

Whoops, gotta get back on topic. Here’s a weather map. 

Just now, Phil said:

I consider March to be a winter month. More-so than December.

It is definitely more of a winter month east of the Rockies. Not so much in our climate, except in the mountains. 

Great tips, thanks everyone! Staying at Koloa Landing. I have a 3 year old so honestly half the trip is going to be spent in the pool since that's what she'll like. I'll definitely get up to Waimea Canyon...ideally I'll get a morning to go running up there since it looks like there are a number of decent trails. My wife gets sea sick so can't do boating unfortunately. Was planning on renting e-bikes since the kiddo likes riding on the back seat. I bookmarked Brennecke's...any other food recs?

3 minutes ago, TT-SEA said:

Which side of the island?

South side. Any tips? I've been to the big island and Maui but not Kauai. 

Just now, iFred said:

Where in Hawaii?

Kauai

38 minutes ago, TT-SEA said:

This escalated quickly!

Timed perfectly with the day I fly to Hawaii. Would love for the mountains to load up on snow and Seattle to load up on 42 and rain while I'm gone. 

23 minutes ago, RentonHill said:

Before QFC got top pot, thriftway in west Seattle had the best maple bars around here, in my opinion. Would always get a MB and a bawls to start my day when I worked at the beverage company. Tuesdays and Thursdays started at thriftway, Monday Wednesday Friday at Westwood QFC (rip)!! Good times. Started that job in summer 2011, but unfortunately I don’t remember appreciating how mild it was back then…

Great, now I'm craving maple bars. 

Nice day to be out in the woods. Just need to head to either @MossMan’s house or the Middle Fork find snow at 1,000 ft in western WA. Found some old growth cedars as well.