August 2023 Weather in the PNW

[Cascadia_Wx]

Nice morning light show out there. Frequent flashes to the west and NW right now and some rumbles of thunder, mostly distant. Even had some light to moderate rain earlier.

[Cascadia_Wx]

Very mild low of 68 so far this morning. It’s been sort of a subtropical August. Put up a decent diurnal spread yesterday with a 92/51. East winds picked up late in the day.

[TT-SEA]

9 minutes ago, RentonHill said:

Interesting that the euro basically showed nothing around Portland and didn't have these showers delivering any meaningful rain until ~Toledo or whatever

With the way its consolidating into a solid band on the radar it might actually make it up here.  

[RentonHill]

2 minutes ago, TT-SEA said:

With the way its consolidating into a solid band on the radar it might actually make it up here.  

Hi-res Canadian - which does have the current PDX showers - sort of shows that happening

 

[BLI snowman]

15 minutes ago, Doinko said:

Definitely the best storm in a couple of years at least here

Same, probably well over 100 flashes seen now.

[BLI snowman]

Rainfall is up to 0.17" here. Definitely more than expected.

[the_convergence_zone]

At Sea-Tac, I’m sure my thunderstorm jinx will continue. Expect storms everywhere as soon as I’m out of viewing range. See you all in a week. 

[RentonHill]

1 minute ago, the_convergence_zone said:

At Sea-Tac, I’m sure my thunderstorm jinx will continue. Expect storms everywhere as soon as I’m out of viewing range. See you all in a week. 

thank you for your sacrifice

[TacomaWx]

21 minutes ago, TT-SEA said:

With the way it’s consolidating into a solid band on the radar it might actually make it up here.  

Convection is such a fickle thing that i really didn’t want to get too excited about the prospects of this one. Looks like it’s been very good down south, and some rain too! hopefully it can make it up here. 

[Front Ranger]

1 hour ago, TT-SEA said:

00Z ECMWF and now the 06Z GFS were much drier with the system next week.   Don't like the trend on the ECMWF in particular.

 

Is it actually a trend yet?

At least some areas are getting surprise rainfall today. 

[TT-SEA]

1 minute ago, Front Ranger said:

Is it actually a trend yet?

At least some areas are getting surprise rainfall today. 

Not a trend on the GFS yet... but the last couple runs of the ECMWF have been drier each time.

[SilverFallsAndrew]

We had constant thunder from about 930-430 overnight. Didn’t seem like it rained much, maybe a few hundredths, haven’t checked the gauge though, I could have slept through a heavier shower perhaps. 

[TT-SEA]

The band is consolidating even more and now appears to be enhancing as it moves north.    I think its going get pretty interesting around the Seattle area shortly here.  

[Chewbacca Defense]

57 up here in Bellingham, spent all day down in Seattle yesterday buying a car, so I'm not really in tune with the prospects for the storms today, but I'm assuming Bellingham is SOL in terms of getting any sort of light show.

[TacomaWx]

6 minutes ago, TT-SEA said:

The band is consolidating even more and now appears to be enhancing as it moves north.    I think it’s going get pretty interesting around the Seattle area shortly here.  

Fingers crossed some of the models showed it falling apart as it moved into SW WA but so far it looks like it’s intensifying actually. 

[Front Ranger]

Looks like some parched areas of central WA are about to see some rain.

[SilverFallsAndrew]

Wonder how many fires started from this…

[the_convergence_zone]

15 minutes ago, TT-SEA said:

The band is consolidating even more and now appears to be enhancing as it moves north.    I think its going get pretty interesting around the Seattle area shortly here.  

It knows that my flight departs at 7:30 so it can move in right after that. 

[SunAndSnow]

6 minutes ago, SilverFallsAndrew said:

Wonder how many fires started from this…

Lots of opportunities…

[TacomaWx]

6 minutes ago, SunAndSnow said:

Lots of opportunities…

Well that’s unfortunate. I had been thinking about that possibility coming up but hopefully there was enough rain. Just going to try and enjoy the light show either way. 

[SilverFallsAndrew]

0.05” overnight. Pathetic. Basically 7 hours of dry thunderstorms. Nightmare scenario. 

[SilverFallsAndrew]

11 minutes ago, SunAndSnow said:

Lots of opportunities…

Most of these had almost no rain accompanying them. 

[Phil]

19 hours ago, ShawniganLake said:

Ran into a wasp nest in the ground in a customers garden yesterday.  It’s over. Winter cancel. 

Last time we had such a prolific downburst/severe season locally was 2014. #AnalogFun

18 hours ago, BLI snowman said:

Multi-year ENSO events have already been commonplace as far back as any records exist. Which is the 1850s or so. 

Leave it to the media to take a reasonable, interesting study, take it out of context, and mischaracterize it, misinforming the public while railing against “disinformation”.

Pathetic.

17 hours ago, Dave said:

That's why I've seen 100+ bolts over the last few years, including ~50 or so on Aug 9th, 2022. If there is a bolt to be seen, I'm out looking for it. It helps that the roof overhangs the front and the back of the house so I can stand there and not get wet.

Step 1: Look at the radar first to see which direction to look.

Step 2: Stare until your neck hurts.

Also, don't get struck by lightning.

Step 2: Why stand? Best way to enjoy a nocturnal light show is to pull out a lounge chair and medicate.

12 hours ago, Omegaraptor said:

Not a single low below 80 at New Orleans Lakefront so far this month.

 

Alexandria, LA data for this month speaks for itself.

Been a Tim-o-riffic summer in the south this year. Heat indices/WBGTs higher than anything death valley has been spitting out.

[Chewbacca Defense]

Just saw we have a Frasier outflow going this morning, but instead of nice cold arctic air, its smoke

Air quality isn't too terrible yet IMBY, but its not to great either.

[Phil]

10 hours ago, SilverFallsAndrew said:

We don’t want lightning. Jeezus you people. Getting a little light rain here now. Didn’t expect that. 

I love lightning.  

7 hours ago, Dave said:

Lightning every two to three seconds! This doesn't happen in western Oregon. Sucks that it is 25 miles to my west, but I'm pretty happy. 

Nice! Get any good shots?

[FroYoBro]

That was a fun night/morning with tons of lightning strikes visible from here. Also got hit by that shower early in the morning enough to give the plants a nice drink. 

[SilverFallsAndrew]

3 minutes ago, Phil said:

I love lightning.  

Nice! Get any good shots?

Yeah your lightning comes with rain, ours just starts dozens of fires. 

[Phil]

13 minutes ago, SilverFallsAndrew said:

Yeah your lightning comes with rain, ours just starts dozens of fires. 

Doesn’t always come with rain. But the biosphere is usually waterlogged enough that it doesn’t matter.

Had some *very* close calls in June this year, though. Have never seen that in the warm season before, very weird. Lucky the downpours started when they did because people here don’t even think about fire…the entire county would’ve been ablaze come July 4th.

[RentonHill]

No way this falls apart before it hits us, right??

[TacomaWx]

2 minutes ago, RentonHill said:

No way this falls apart before it hits us, right??

It’s looking that way like some of the models showed, but atleast it should rain, getting windy and dark here. 

[Phishy Wx]

58 with gusty E/SE winds

feels fall ish

[TacomaWx]

Starting to rain here so that’s exciting atleast! 

[The Cats Meow]

Nice rainy cool morning here in the Puyallup Valley.

Looking for some clearing from the south later and a high of 80.

Fantastic.

[MossMan]

Ugly out with clouds and a smoky milky haze. Smells like stale old smoldering campfire this morning. 

[TacomaWx]

Just now, MossMan said:

Ugly out with clouds and a smoky milky haze. Smells like stale old smoldering campfire this morning. 

Hopefully this clears it out atleast briefly. Raining pretty good here now. 

[Omegaraptor]

1 hour ago, SunAndSnow said:

Lots of opportunities…

You don’t see thunderstorms at Cape Blanco every day!

[LowerGarfield]

3 hours ago, TT-SEA said:

00Z ECMWF and now the 06Z GFS were much drier with the system next week.   Don't like the trend on the ECMWF in particular.

 

The Euro loves me and the GFS doesn't.

[Rubus Leucodermis]

9 minutes ago, MossMan said:

Ugly out with clouds and a smoky milky haze. Smells like stale old smoldering campfire this morning. 

AQI is up around 160 here, into the unhealthy range.

[Rubus Leucodermis]

5 minutes ago, LowerGarfield said:

The Euro loves me and the GFS doesn't.

Just the other way ’round here. But the last I thought to look, the operational on the Euro is a dry outlier. Ensemble mean is much wetter for me.

[SilverFallsAndrew]

Live look from the weather porch. 

[Phishy Wx]

9 minutes ago, LowerGarfield said:

The Euro loves me and the GFS doesn't.

I'd much rather have the EURO in your favor

[TT-SEA]

5 minutes ago, SilverFallsAndrew said:

Live look from the weather porch. 

Nice to see blue sky down there.   We are downwind from you now.

[TT-SEA]

Dark and quiet here... no thunder.   At least not yet.    No rain yet either. 

[SilverFallsAndrew]

2 minutes ago, TT-SEA said:

Nice to see blue sky down there.   We are downwind from you now.

It’s a very very muggy 63.

[BLI snowman]

Quite the delicate balance in that the ULL is close enough to give us the instability needed for storms these next few days, but not enough to trigger any significant marine intrusion.

Unusual for us in the summer after a convective event to not see a significant corresponding push and a switch to onshore flow. Here we are just sustaining the warm to hot stuff for awhile as the pattern remains more or less stagnant.

[SouthHillFrosty]

Rain is just a sprinkle but it shows me under moderate rain on radar. 

[BLI snowman]

And kind of a broken record at this point, but the low of 69 at PDX is the warmest on record for this point in the season.

[RentonHill]

ICON would be 

 

 

[Meatyorologist]

Seattle has a rain shield from the south now. Probably won't even see a drop at my house

[TT-SEA]

30 minutes ago, SouthHillFrosty said:

Rain is just a sprinkle but it shows me under moderate rain on radar. 

Barely enough to wet the ground here.   Looks like the ECMWF was right in showing basically no rain out here.