July 2023 PNW Observations and Discussions

[the_convergence_zone]

55 minutes ago, TT-SEA said:

We definitely get more genuine systems in the second half of August and September.   But in terms of just sun angle and long nights causing the marine layer to stick around... that usually happens in mid October.    The murky goo season... when I start cheering for an active jet stream to keep things mixed!

Last October was so weird because we had those warm summer-like days with the low sun angle and weak upper-level flow. The main thing I remember is the nocturnal drainage flows from the Cascades having extra oomph and bringing smoke from US-2 down into Everett every night. Then the northerlies would pick up midday and push it south into Seattle. 

[Deweydog]

SUNSET ALERT

[TT-SEA]

27 minutes ago, the_convergence_zone said:

Last October was so weird because we had those warm summer-like days with the low sun angle and weak upper-level flow. The main thing I remember is the nocturnal drainage flows from the Cascades having extra oomph and bringing smoke from US-2 down into Everett every night. Then the northerlies would pick up midday and push it south into Seattle. 

It was a nightmare scenario for the Seattle area last October given where that fire was located.    

[Rubus Leucodermis]

55.8/75.2. A picture-perfect summer day, ideal for an afternoon hike to Norvan Falls.

[NWbyNW]

Positive news.  Models show smoke trajectory will be blowing away from Western Washington and Oregon the next several days.  

[the_convergence_zone]

53 minutes ago, TT-SEA said:

It was a nightmare scenario for the Seattle area last October given where that fire was located.    

I ended up surviving the worst of it in West Seattle. The smoke was annoying and lasted forever but I think my AQI stayed below 150 for the most part. North and east of me wasn’t so lucky. 

[Chewbacca Defense]

Overall perfect day up here.  It did get a little warm for my liking about 4pm when it hit 77, but was otherwise amazing with a nice breeze blowing most of the day.  The fire out at Diablo grew to 20 acres last I saw, and it appears that KBLI has become an afternoon pitstop for the water bombers.  We had a 4 ship of Air Tractor water bombers fly to the south of my house and they had a Blue Angels show routine going.  They started out in a finger 4 and appeared to transition to a diamond formation right before I lost sight of them.  When they flew back out they flew down I5 to Hwy 20 and cut over so I didn't get to see them.

A couple of hours later we had a couple of Canadair CL415 buzz our house on their way to KBLI.  They flew back up via Lake Whatcom, I could hear them but not see them.

[the_convergence_zone]

57 minutes ago, Chewbacca Defense said:

Overall perfect day up here.  It did get a little warm for my liking about 4pm when it hit 77, but was otherwise amazing with a nice breeze blowing most of the day.  The fire out at Diablo grew to 20 acres last I saw, and it appears that KBLI has become an afternoon pitstop for the water bombers.  We had a 4 ship of Air Tractor water bombers fly to the south of my house and they had a Blue Angels show routine going.  They started out in a finger 4 and appeared to transition to a diamond formation right before I lost sight of them.  When they flew back out they flew down I5 to Hwy 20 and cut over so I didn't get to see them.

A couple of hours later we had a couple of Canadair CL415 buzz our house on their way to KBLI.  They flew back up via Lake Whatcom, I could hear them but not see them.

Fortunately there are more resources than fires right now so they can squash these little ones before they blow up. But it’s not going away entirely and if the easterlies make an appearance before the fall rains it will be trouble.

In other news, the onshore flow was really strong this evening, I bet it will be nice and cool in the morning. 

[TigerWoodsLibido]

Looks like we got up to 84F. Absolutely beautiful, warm summer day.

[ShawniganLake]

Couple of heat spikes showing up on the ensembles for the first half of august 

 

 

[smerfylicious]

8 hours ago, TT-SEA said:

It was a nightmare scenario for the Seattle area last October given where that fire was located.    

Yes...a nightmare scenario for Seattle -.-

Driving to my home for a month looked kinda like driving into the gates of hell lol

Edit: anyone know what happened to Snow_Wizard? He hasn't been on since April. I know summer ain't his bag, but I've never seen him bail on this place for so long.

[Rubus Leucodermis]

2 hours ago, smerfylicious said:

Yes...a nightmare scenario for Seattle -.-

Driving to my home for a month looked kinda like driving into the gates of hell lol

Edit: anyone know what happened to Snow_Wizard? He hasn't been on since April. I know summer ain't his bag, but I've never seen him bail on this place for so long.

My guess is that he will be back the first time a cool autumn front shows up in the clown range.

[SilverFallsAndrew]

2 hours ago, smerfylicious said:

Yes...a nightmare scenario for Seattle -.-

Driving to my home for a month looked kinda like driving into the gates of hell lol

Edit: anyone know what happened to Snow_Wizard? He hasn't been on since April. I know summer ain't his bag, but I've never seen him bail on this place for so long.

I’ve seen him dip out for 3-6 months before. 

[SilverFallsAndrew]

Pleasant 47 this morning. 

[SilverFallsAndrew]

Forecast high of 94 now at SLE next Sunday. 

[Snownerd3000]

Found this channel thought I'd share. Goes over a ton of info and posts pretty regularly.

 

[Rubus Leucodermis]

22 minutes ago, SilverFallsAndrew said:

Forecast high of 94 now at SLE next Sunday. 

Pretty weak sauce by present-day standards. Don’t think it’s a real heat wave anymore unless we can get some triple digits in the Willamette Valley.

[LowerGarfield]

13 hours ago, T-Town said:

The temp is perfect so it’s not too bad but it would get old if I lived here. 

The bright side of living somewhere that sees a lot of gusts is that the grid is built for it. We have lost power more than a few minutes almost never. We bought an expensive generator thinking we would have a situation like EWA had maybe 2015 (What year was it??) when the east side of the state was out of power in the fall or winter for almost a week. We've never had to use our generator. Yet I live in one of the windiest places, in the foothills of the Blue mountains of WA.

[Phishy Wx]

in the 5.5 years I've lived here my most expensive utility bill of the year has always been in winter (usually December). looks like July is going to rival it this year (also did in the massive heat wave a few years ago)

[Phishy Wx]

1 hour ago, LowerGarfield said:

The bright side of living somewhere that sees a lot of gusts is that the grid is built for it. We have lost power more than a few minutes almost never. We bought an expensive generator thinking we would have a situation like EWA had maybe 2015 (What year was it??) when the east side of the state was out of power in the fall or winter for almost a week. We've never had to use our generator. Yet I live in one of the windiest places, in the foothills of the Blue mountains of WA.

we thought about generator here, but my neighborhood utilities are underground.  we've had maybe 3 power outages in 5.5 years that lasted more than 5 minutes. (the feeder lines that are up the street are above ground)

[MossMan]

In the 5 years we have been at our current location we have probably totaled almost 4 weeks worth of power outages. Shortest being about 10 hours and the longest being just under 5 days. Average is about a 2 day outage. 

[Deweydog]

RIP Pee Wee.

[MossMan]

1 minute ago, Deweydog said:

RIP Pee Wee.

I just came here to say that! 

[Omegaraptor]

Anyone else noticing yellow jackets drastically increasing in number?

[SilverFallsAndrew]

1 minute ago, Omegaraptor said:

Anyone else noticing yellow jackets drastically increasing in number?

Yes, but that seems fairly typical for this time of year. My wife and daughter both got stung last week, I took down 7 nests from the eaves of the house this weekend, but just discovered a big one I missed that will be much more difficult to access. 

[Phishy Wx]

he have a lot of hornets this year.  big 'upside down' bell shaped hives in trees

[the_convergence_zone]

3 minutes ago, Omegaraptor said:

Anyone else noticing yellow jackets drastically increasing in number?

Yep as Andrew says, typical this time of year. I keep honeybees so I have to be especially vigilant. The traps that you can get at Home Depot are quite effective. Ideally you should trap in March to catch the queens, use a sweet bait in spring and a protein bait (or whatever comes standard with those traps) this time of year. 

[Rubus Leucodermis]

Thankfully, no more reports of Asian giant hornets (i.e. “murder hornets”) this year. No news is good news.

[Phishy Wx]

5 minutes ago, Rubus Leucodermis said:

Thankfully, no more reports of Asian giant hornets (i.e. “murder hornets”) this year. No news is good news.

didn't they apparently tag bees and track it back to what they think was the 'master' nest for these things and eradicate it last year?

[Rubus Leucodermis]

2 minutes ago, Phishy Wx said:

didn't they apparently tag bees and track it back to what they think was the 'master' nest for these things and eradicate it last year?

None were found last year, either. The last sightings were in 2021, and a nest was eradicated. Cautiously optimistic that they have been extirpated, although with global trade, another invasion is inevitable at some point.

[the_convergence_zone]

The use of those radio trackers to find the nest was brilliant. I guess that is one advantage to those hornets being gigantic. It's nice to have one less thing to worry about for now. I was never concerned that they would be allowed to establish in populated areas but it would not be fun to have those nests around in remote parts of the Cascades where accidentally stepping on one could be the end.

[Chewbacca Defense]

53 minutes ago, SilverFallsAndrew said:

Yes, but that seems fairly typical for this time of year. My wife and daughter both got stung last week, I took down 7 nests from the eaves of the house this weekend, but just discovered a big one I missed that will be much more difficult to access. 

 

[Rubus Leucodermis]

28 minutes ago, the_convergence_zone said:

The use of those radio trackers to find the nest was brilliant. I guess that is one advantage to those hornets being gigantic. It's nice to have one less thing to worry about for now. I was never concerned that they would be allowed to establish in populated areas but it would not be fun to have those nests around in remote parts of the Cascades where accidentally stepping on one could be the end.

Other invasive insects have become established and been REAL problems. Gypsy moths, elm beetles, fire ants, etc. Mostly quite some time ago before the long-term costs of complacency and inaction were known. The apparent extirpation of the giant hornets is a victory for government taking action (and international cooperation, nests were found and extirpated on both sides of the US/Canada border).

[SilverFallsAndrew]

5 minutes ago, Rubus Leucodermis said:

Other invasive insects have become established and been REAL problems. Gypsy moths, elm beetles, fire ants, etc. Mostly quite some time ago before the long-term costs of complacency and inaction were known. The apparent extirpation of the giant hornets is a victory for government taking action (and international cooperation, nests were found and extirpated on both sides of the US/Canada border).

The fact those ash borers are in Oregon now is very depressing. 

[the_convergence_zone]

13 minutes ago, SilverFallsAndrew said:

The fact those ash borers are in Oregon now is very depressing. 

Yeah, if I had an ash tree I would just cut it down now and start over. My parents had a nice healthy one in Wisconsin that they initially treated every year to keep the ash borers away. Initially they left the tree alone but after the easy targets were all killed they finished off the trees that had been treated as well. 

[Phishy Wx]

Y'all got Fire Ants over there?

 

oof, use to have those in the southeast.  the worst!

[Rubus Leucodermis]

22 minutes ago, SilverFallsAndrew said:

The fact those ash borers are in Oregon now is very depressing. 

Yes, this is one that by the time the authorities realized what a problem it was, it was too late. And our native ash trees are very susceptible to it.

[Cold Snap]

Made it down to 49 this morning. Currently 73.

[Rubus Leucodermis]

5 minutes ago, the_convergence_zone said:

Yeah, if I had an ash tree I would just cut it down now and start over. My parents had a nice healthy one in Wisconsin that they initially treated every year to keep the ash borers away. Initially they left the tree alone but after the easy targets were all killed they finished off the trees that had been treated as well. 

I would wait for the borers to kill it.

If one in a million ash trees are resistant, that is still a few trees. The survivors can then be bred.

One of the reasons the American chestnut got destroyed by the blight is that people figured they were all doomed and logged them. Scattered blight-resistant chestnut trees have been located, and are the subject of breeding programs, but there could have been a lot more to work with.

[T-Town]

3 hours ago, Deweydog said:

RIP Pee Wee.

The breakfast scene in Pee Wees Big Adventure is an all timer.
 

Can I have some Mr T Cereal?  OKAY!!  I pity the fool don’t eat my cereal.