April 2024 Weather in the PNW

[Cascadia_Wx]

10 minutes ago, SilverFallsAndrew said:

Raining and 36 this morning. Jesse is missing a mighty fine day!

I am there with you in spirit Andrew. I always am.

[Cascadia_Wx]

11 minutes ago, SilverFallsAndrew said:

Raining and 36 this morning. Jesse is missing a mighty fine day!

I saw VUO put up a 53/39 yesterday!

[BLI snowman]

16 minutes ago, Frontal Snowsquall said:

I would want to be somewhere in nature and avoid the large crowds. I would choose to watch the total solar eclipse somewhere in the Ozarks. It’s beautiful and kind of reminds me of the PNW. 

That's my plan.  Never been to that region before so it'll give me a chance to explore a little with the eclipse as a bonus.

[Cascadia_Wx]

30 minutes ago, SilverFallsAndrew said:

I don’t understand spending a bunch of time and energy to see a two minute eclipse. Especially when we just had one here a few years ago. To be completely transparent I don’t remember much about it. I thought it was going to be the most incredible thing I’d ever seen, but it just got dark for a couple minutes and then the sun came out again. It’s rare, I get that, but other than that, we’ve all seen the sun go behind a dark cloud for a few minutes and come back out. It was like a more intense version of that. 

Saw the 2017 eclipse in Madras and I thought it was incredible. Witnessing the shadow of the moon slowly move over the landscape, passing over Mt Jefferson before it got to us was wild. And obviously the darkness has a different quality and is much deeper than any sort of cloudiness could create. Stars come out, the temperature drops noticeably, birds get confused, the sky turns all sorts of interesting colors, almost like a continuous ring of sunrises/sunsets around the entire horizon. I wasn’t expecting that part and it really impressed me.Then of course the spectacle itself of the moon gradually encroaching upon then obscuring the disc of the sun is breathtaking. The sight of that coronal glow surrounding a sphere of pitch darkness is something else.

That said, I feel BLESSED to have already seen one, and I’m not going to go on too much of a mad scramble just for the bragging rights of having seen other. If we see it again I will be thrilled, if not this is still a cool trip to a new area of the country.

[MossMan]

29 minutes ago, Frontal Snowsquall said:

I would want to be somewhere in nature and avoid the large crowds. I would choose to watch the total solar eclipse somewhere in the Ozarks. It’s beautiful and kind of reminds me of the PNW. 

Yeah somewhere that will not feature hoards of people everywhere with jammed roads would be more my cup of tea. 

[Hoosier]

34 minutes ago, SilverFallsAndrew said:

Unsurprisingly many educators are taking a medieval approach to the eclipse. 
 

https://www.thefp.com/p/school-safetyism-classes-closed-solar-eclipse

That's definitely a reason that schools are closing, but schools in the path of totality are also closing because of traffic concerns.  

[MossMan]

I don’t remember schools closing up here back in 2017 or whenever the last eclipse was. 

[TT-SEA]

5 minutes ago, MossMan said:

I don’t remember schools closing up here back in 2017 or whenever the last eclipse was. 

It was in August and we weren't in the path of totality. 

[Timmy Supercell]

8 minutes ago, MossMan said:

I don’t remember schools closing up here back in 2017 or whenever the last eclipse was. 

School wasn't in session during the last one. 

[SilverFallsAndrew]

2 minutes ago, TT-SEA said:

It was in August and we weren't in the path of totality. 

We were in the path of totality, but like you said it was August, school hadn’t started yet. The traffic was supposed to be terrible, but that was just media hype. 

[SilverFallsAndrew]

Looks like HEAVY snow in NE Oregon this morning. 

[ShawniganLake]

14 minutes ago, MossMan said:

I don’t remember schools closing up here back in 2017 or whenever the last eclipse was. 

Has it already been 7 years since that happened.     

[TT-SEA]

7 minutes ago, SilverFallsAndrew said:

We were in the path of totality, but like you said it was August, school hadn’t started yet. The traffic was supposed to be terrible, but that was just media hype. 

My sons and a bunch of their friends drove to a field south of Salem the night before and watched the eclipse there... but it took them hours to just get back into the Portland area afterwards.   I guess I-5 was a parking lot so they went through Silverton and came up into Oregon City but even that was bumper-to-bumper for miles.

[SilverFallsAndrew]

Just now, TT-SEA said:

My sons and a bunch of their friends drove to a field south of Salem the night before and watched the eclipse there... but it took them hours to just get into the Portland area afterwards.   I guess I-5 was a parking lot so they went through Silverton and came up into Oregon City but even that was bumper-to-bumper for miles.

Huh we drove to Eugene right after and had no issues. Probably more worse more north. 

[Cascadia_Wx]

29 minutes ago, Cascadia_Wx said:

Saw the 2017 eclipse in Madras and I thought it was incredible. Witnessing the shadow of the moon slowly move over the landscape, passing over Mt Jefferson before it got to us was wild. And obviously the darkness has a different quality and is much deeper than any sort of cloudiness could create. Stars come out, the temperature drops noticeably, birds get confused, the sky turns all sorts of interesting colors, almost like a continuous ring of sunrises/sunsets around the entire horizon. I wasn’t expecting that part and it really impressed me.Then of course the spectacle itself of the moon gradually encroaching upon then obscuring the disc of the sun is breathtaking. The sight of that coronal glow surrounding a sphere of pitch darkness is something else.

That said, I feel BLESSED to have already seen one, and I’m not going to go on too much of a mad scramble just for the bragging rights of having seen other. If we see it again I will be thrilled, if not this is still a cool trip to a new area of the country.

Figured I wouldn’t win any of the 2 cool for ‘clipse crowd over with this description. Oh well. 

[Phil]

4 hours ago, Cascadia_Wx said:

Looked out the hotel window this morning, and immediately thought of Phil. Currently 64 and houmid in Houston.

 

At least 64 and humid still feels “cool”.

[Hoosier]

1 minute ago, TT-SEA said:

My sons and a bunch of their friends drove to a field south of Salem the night before and watched the eclipse there... but it took them hours to just get back into the Portland area afterwards.   I guess I-5 was a parking lot so they went through Silverton and came up into Oregon City but even that was bumper-to-bumper for miles.

Traffic was horrid in southern IL in 2017.  I drove all night to get home and it took 3x longer than it should have.  There were some road closures in the area due to construction, which exacerbated things.  Whatever genius thought to do that isn't too bright.  They learned from last time though and I actually read that no major road work is being allowed to take place in that area of Illinois for this eclipse.  

https://news.wttw.com/2017/08/22/eclipse-trips-carbondale-come-traffic-jam-hangovers

[Eugene-5SW]

11 minutes ago, SilverFallsAndrew said:

We were in the path of totality, but like you said it was August, school hadn’t started yet. The traffic was supposed to be terrible, but that was just media hype. 

Definitely not just media hype. Took me 2.5 hours to get back to Eugene from my eclipse viewing site 60 miles away, and that was on back roads. Main roads were completely jammed.

[Phil]

Left my contacts in overnight now my right eye is having a b*tch fit. If this doesn’t clear up soon I won’t be able to drive.

[MossMan]

1 minute ago, TT-SEA said:

It was in August and we weren't in the path of totality. 

Just looked up the date, that now makes sense! I was thinking schools in Oregon wasn’t closed either but yeah not very memorable for me, though I did take a picture of the shadowing that was happening. 

[Phil]

6 hours ago, TigerWoodsLibido said:

Wonder how many 90F burgers we're gonna have this summer?

Fewer than me.

[Cascadia_Wx]

7 minutes ago, Phil said:

At least 64 and humid still feels “cool”.

Up to 77 now. It’s actually sort of interesting, and I don’t mind it too much since I know it’s normal for around here.

[Phishy Wx]

screw the 90 burgers. 100 burgers are the way

[TT-SEA]

Just now, Phishy Wx said:

screw the 90 burgers. 100 burgers are the way

Strange timing considering the ridge next weekend vanished and now the models show cold troughing instead.

[Phishy Wx]

Just now, TT-SEA said:

Strange timing considering the ridge next weekend vanished and now the models show cold troughing instead.

70 burger off the forecast now for Thursday, replaced with 65 burger

[MossMan]

13 minutes ago, Phil said:

Left my contacts in overnight now my right eye is having a b*tch fit. If this doesn’t clear up soon I won’t be able to drive.

Just buy a Tesla or have your GF drive! 

[Phil]

1 minute ago, Cascadia_Wx said:

Up to 77 now. It’s actually sort of interesting, and I don’t mind it too much since I know it’s normal for around here.

Looks like dews are in the low 60s there currently. I’d concur with you on that being a nice day (as long as it doesn’t happen in January or something).

[ShawniganLake]

22 minutes ago, Cascadia_Wx said:

Figured I wouldn’t win any of the 2 cool for ‘clipse crowd over with this description. Oh well. 

This ultra wordy descriptive post read like something Phil would post. 

[Cascadia_Wx]

7 minutes ago, ShawniganLake said:

This ultra wordy descriptive post read like something Phil would post. 

Must be the humidity.

[SilverFallsAndrew]

37 out there. Pretty humid tho 

[Phil]

9 minutes ago, TT-SEA said:

Strange timing considering the ridge next weekend vanished and now the models show cold troughing instead.

Seems probable there will be at least a couple episodes of progressive ridging (nothing amplified/stationary) with the MJO propagating from the WPAC/warm pool through the W-Hem. I mentioned a few days ago that MJO-derived analog pools tended to fold over ridges after a few days, but none of those cases were troughy straight through (except volcanic years which aren’t viable analogs).

There is some axisymmetric dissociation in the LF state in tropical convection, largely related to the -PMM remaining post-niño (reduced off-equator NPAC +SSTA/OHC). Sample size for this type of setup is small and mostly outdated, so I’m hesitant to draw conclusions w/rt how it’ll project onto seasonal/subseasonal patterns. Might make zero difference for North America. But it’s possible this could introduce new structural uncertainties/error modes within guidance. We’ll see.

[OysterPrintout]

49 minutes ago, TT-SEA said:

My sons and a bunch of their friends drove to a field south of Salem the night before and watched the eclipse there... but it took them hours to just get back into the Portland area afterwards.   I guess I-5 was a parking lot so they went through Silverton and came up into Oregon City but even that was bumper-to-bumper for miles.

can confirm, drove from Corvalis back to Portland and the traffic was real bad. 

Small price to pay of course. Whenever I talk about seeing the absolute majesty of a total eclipse I don't say at the end yeah but traffic was pretty bad coming home.

[TT-SEA]

1 minute ago, OysterPrintout said:

can confirm, drove from Corvalis back to Portland and the traffic was real bad. 

Small price to pay of course. Whenever I talk about seeing the absolute majesty of a total eclipse I don't say at the end yeah but traffic was pretty bad coming home.

My sons said it was totally worth it and didn't care about the traffic.    I just remembered them updating me on the very slow trip home when Andrew mentioned there was no traffic at all.   

[TT-SEA]

6 minutes ago, Phil said:

Seems probable there will be at least a couple episodes of progressive ridging (nothing amplified/stationary) with the MJO propagating from the WPAC/warm pool through the W-Hem. I mentioned a few days ago that MJO-derived analog pools tended to fold over ridges after a few days, but none of those cases were troughy straight through (except volcanic years which aren’t viable analogs).

There is some axisymmetric dissociation in the LF state in tropical convection, largely related to the -PMM remaining post-niño (reduced off-equator NPAC +SSTA/OHC). Sample size for this type of setup is small and mostly outdated, so I’m hesitant to draw conclusions w/rt how it’ll project onto seasonal/subseasonal patterns. Might make zero difference for North America. But it’s possible this could introduce new structural uncertainties/error modes within guidance. We’ll see.

Totally agree.   I was enjoying my coffee and commented to my wife on the axisymmetric dissociation in the LF state in tropical convection.

[SilverFallsAndrew]

43 minutes ago, TT-SEA said:

My sons said it was totally worth it and didn't care about the traffic.    I just remembered them updating me on the very slow trip home when Andrew mentioned there was no traffic at all.   

Didn’t seem that bad. I took hwy 213 from Silverton to Stayton, went down through Scio and Crabtree to Albany and then I5 to Eugene. Absolute smooth sailing. All the out of towners and city slickers got stuck in traffic. 

 

[TT-SEA]

2 minutes ago, SilverFallsAndrew said:

Didn’t seem that bad. I took hwy 213 from Silverton to Stayton, went down through Scio and Crabtree to Albany and then I5 to Eugene. Absolute smooth sailing. All the out of towners and city slickers got stuck in traffic. 

 

Yes... locals live in an alternate universe where every road going north towards Portland from Salem wasn't clogged.   Of course you didn't drive north into Portland that day.  

[SilverFallsAndrew]

2 minutes ago, TT-SEA said:

Yes... locals live in an alternate universe where every road going north towards Portland from Salem wasn't clogged.   Of course you didn't drive north into Portland that day.  

That would have been a fools errand. 

Edited April 6 by SilverFallsAndrew

[Phil]

50 minutes ago, TT-SEA said:

Totally agree.   I was enjoying my coffee and commented to my wife on the axisymmetric dissociation in the LF state in tropical convection.

Here’s a visual aid re: example of axisymmetry applied in meteorology.

Technically the correct term for what I was describing would be “mirror asymmetry”, but that’s not how it’s phrased in meteorology, and would have sounded even more jargony.  

[SilverFallsAndrew]

Nice start to the month at SLE. Could be much worse. 

[TT-SEA]

Just now, SilverFallsAndrew said:

That would have been a fools errand. 

Or a necessity for some.