April 2024 Weather in the PNW

[RentonHill]

3 minutes ago, Phishy Wx said:

if dryness becomes the trend for Spring, that's far from hyperbole this time.  we already have pending restrictions now over here based on river flow.  snowpack less than 70%.  not too far fetched.  cheers

This is a real post. I appreciate it. Start with this next time

[TT-SEA]

If you just looked at the satellite you would think a wet weekend was in store... but instead it will be a sunny weekend up here and wet in California.

[MossMan]

20 minutes ago, TT-SEA said:

If you just looked at the satellite you would think a wet weekend was in store... but instead it will be a sunny weekend up here and wet in California.

Looking forward to a dry few days! 

[MossMan]

2yrs ago today! 

[iFred]

13 hours ago, SilverFallsAndrew said:

Went out to Los Alamos this evening. 

Mountains of New Mexico are a special place in their own right. It might be my ancestral blood talking, but it might be the only place on the continent south of the 37º parallel that I would consider living in.

[Phishy Wx]

51 minutes ago, TT-SEA said:

Its hyperbole.   

we'll revisit in 90 days. deal?

[SilverFallsAndrew]

14 minutes ago, iFred said:

Mountains of New Mexico are a special place in their own right. It might be my ancestral blood talking, but it might be the only place on the continent south of the 37º parallel that I would consider living in.

It’s incredible. I want to get down to the Gila Wilderness some time. 

[Phil]

12z CMC wants to continue the Jesse pattern indefinitely. Gets us into the 90s next week FFS. Dumb a** s**t.

[Phil]

Just went through 3 years of this and now it’s back again. Trades everywhere. Enjoy repeating the medieval megadrought.  

[Frontal Snowsquall]

Anybody have a guess on what could have caused this extreme wind event in McMinnville yesterday afternoon?

‘McMinnville Ore. (KPTV) - A business in McMinnville was damaged after a strong swirling wind passed over the roof on Tuesday afternoon.

The National Weather Service is looking into the wind event that happened around 1:15 p.m. They said some swirling winds moved over the business and caused damage to a skylight and a ventilation system. 

The building on Northeast Lafayette Avenue houses the aerospace company “Meggitt.” Employees evacuated the building as fire and police officials arrived. 

The wind was not associated with a thunderstorm. 

The National Weather Service said there were not any showers over the McMinnville area when the wind event happened, and the strength of the wind gusts was not known either.’

https://www.kptv.com/2024/04/10/mysterious-wind-event-damages-mcminnville-businesses-roof/

[TT-SEA]

25 minutes ago, Phil said:

12z CMC wants to continue the Jesse pattern indefinitely. Gets us into the 90s next week FFS. Dumb a** s**t.

Total outlier even within its own ensemble mean... and also in complete contrast to the GEFS and EPS.

[Phil]

7 minutes ago, Frontal Snowsquall said:

Anybody have a guess on what could have caused this extreme wind event in McMinnville yesterday afternoon?

‘McMinnville Ore. (KPTV) - A business in McMinnville was damaged after a strong swirling wind passed over the roof on Tuesday afternoon.

The National Weather Service is looking into the wind event that happened around 1:15 p.m. They said some swirling winds moved over the business and caused damage to a skylight and a ventilation system. 

The building on Northeast Lafayette Avenue houses the aerospace company “Meggitt.” Employees evacuated the building as fire and police officials arrived. 

The wind was not associated with a thunderstorm. 

The National Weather Service said there were not any showers over the McMinnville area when the wind event happened, and the strength of the wind gusts was not known either.’

https://www.kptv.com/2024/04/10/mysterious-wind-event-damages-mcminnville-businesses-roof/

Probably a dust devil, absent the dust. Winds can reach 70+mph in those suckers.

[Phil]

7 minutes ago, TT-SEA said:

Total outlier even within its own ensemble mean... and also in complete contrast to the GEFS and EPS.

Not a “total outlier” if you look at the individual solutions, but definitely a minority cluster (for now).

But the same was true a week ago, and look what happened. Models keep dangling a +TNH/+PNA reprieve, but yank the rug when it gets to within a week. Combination of bad luck and transitioning long period tropical forcing.

I’m going to assume the second half of April will feature some kind of ridge/+TNH type pattern simply based on the evolution of the MJO. But it looks more fleeting than it did originally, as we return to E-Hem forcing by early/mid May.

[Phishy Wx]

26 minutes ago, Frontal Snowsquall said:

Anybody have a guess on what could have caused this extreme wind event in McMinnville yesterday afternoon?

‘McMinnville Ore. (KPTV) - A business in McMinnville was damaged after a strong swirling wind passed over the roof on Tuesday afternoon.

The National Weather Service is looking into the wind event that happened around 1:15 p.m. They said some swirling winds moved over the business and caused damage to a skylight and a ventilation system. 

The building on Northeast Lafayette Avenue houses the aerospace company “Meggitt.” Employees evacuated the building as fire and police officials arrived. 

The wind was not associated with a thunderstorm. 

The National Weather Service said there were not any showers over the McMinnville area when the wind event happened, and the strength of the wind gusts was not known either.’

https://www.kptv.com/2024/04/10/mysterious-wind-event-damages-mcminnville-businesses-roof/

Landspout?

[Phil]

Dr. Roundy’s MJO-only composite does project a more +PNA type pattern late-April to mid-May, but the duration has been cut.

This product did perform well last summer, though. So if it’s correct, there should be a ~3 week stretch that leans +PNA and/or +TNH starting during the 3rd week of April. We’ll see.

https://www.atmos.albany.edu/facstaff/roundy/waves/rmmcyc/indexmjo.html

[TT-SEA]

12 minutes ago, Phil said:

Not a “total outlier” if you look at the individual solutions, but definitely a minority cluster (for now).

But the same was true a week ago, and look what happened. Models keep dangling a +TNH/+PNA reprieve, but yank the rug when it gets to within a week. Combination of bad luck and transitioning long period tropical forcing.

I’m going to assume the second half of April will feature some kind of ridge/+TNH type pattern simply based on the evolution of the MJO. But it looks more fleeting than it did originally, as we return to E-Hem forcing by early/mid May.

Well it didn't totally crash... we are still getting a sunny and very pleasant weekend out of the deal.    When it originally showed the crash it looked like it might end up being the 40s with rain all weekend but we got a nice rebound in the models.

[SilverFallsAndrew]

It does look like the dry season has set in. 

[Phil]

7 minutes ago, TT-SEA said:

Well it didn't totally crash... we are still getting a sunny and very pleasant weekend out of the deal.    When it originally showed the crash it looked like it might end up being the 40s with rain all weekend but we got a nice rebound in the models.

I’ll take your word for it, as I haven’t been following other regions’ mesoscale-synoptic details all that closely.

I’m being somewhat imby-centric, as the late week trough out here was originally projected to kick off a more prolonged troughy stretch, but that has reversed entirely. Or at least been delayed substantially.

I’m still optimistic the current pattern will take a break later this month into May, but I’m not confident it will last long.

[TT-SEA]

8 minutes ago, Phil said:

I’ll take your word for it, as I haven’t been following other regions’ mesoscale-synoptic details all that closely.

I’m being somewhat imby-centric, as the late week trough out here was originally projected to kick off a more prolonged troughy stretch, but that has reversed entirely. Or at least been delayed substantially.

I’m still optimistic the current pattern will take a break later this month into May, but I’m not confident it will last long.

12Z ECMWF doesn't look like the GEM... but assume this is still a hot pattern for you.

[Phil]

1 minute ago, TT-SEA said:

12Z ECMWF doesn't look like the GEM... but assume this is still a hot pattern for you.

Lol. That is the nastiest pattern possible here in the summer. Thank goodness it’s April.

[TT-SEA]

1 hour ago, Phil said:

Lol. That is the nastiest pattern possible here in the summer. Thank goodness it’s April.

12Z EPS is warm in the west and cool in the east in the long range.

[Frontal Snowsquall]

2 hours ago, Phil said:

Probably a dust devil, absent the dust. Winds can reach 70+mph in those suckers.

 

2 hours ago, Phishy Wx said:

Landspout?

Good call, looks like it was a dust devil!  

‘One viewer tells Storm Tracker 2 Meteorologist Rhonda Shelby that it was strong enough to reposition two cars in their back parking lot and remove part of the roof causing a water break.

The National Weather Service says a strong dust devil caused the damage.’

https://katu.com/amp/news/local/dust-devil-wreaks-havoc-in-mcminnville-moving-cars-and-causing-damage-national-weather-service

[Cascadia_Wx]

3 hours ago, Phil said:

12z CMC wants to continue the Jesse pattern indefinitely. Gets us into the 90s next week FFS. Dumb a** s**t.

Stop calling it that, it’s annoying. You’ve  never heard me use the term Phil-pattern. This spring hasn’t even been very cool and wet in the PNW. It’s been more centered over California.

[Cascadia_Wx]

Never reported in on how the eclipse went. It was absolutely breathtaking. Turns out we chose a great spot. One thing I liked is that it wasn’t even ridiculously busy there. Just people chilling in the small city park.

There were some clouds at times, but we were able to see the entire lead up as well as totality. It might have been a combination of the clouds around and being in the path of greatest totality, but it got just pitch black during the event. It was surreal, like night time, and it lasted over four minutes. Extremely cool and memorable. Like others have mentioned, the solar flare was really cool to see too, as well as the corona as always. 

Not even going to attempt to post my crappy phone pics, because they barely do it justice.

[Cascadia_Wx]

5 hours ago, RentonHill said:

This is a real post. I appreciate it. Start with this next time

Glad to see it’s ok as long as it’s certain people attacking the posting style of others. What he’s saying isn’t that far fetched. Given the snow situation in the Washington cascades combined with the fact that we are apparently already drying out for the spring (raging Jesse pattern notwithstanding) talk about potential drought seems pretty reasonable at this point.

Edited April 10 by Cascadia_Wx

[TT-SEA]

Lovely afternoon... particularly after the last few days have been generally gloomy and wet.   Nice to see days like this might become more frequent over the next couple of weeks.

[Phishy Wx]

16 minutes ago, Cascadia_Wx said:

Never reported in on how the eclipse went. It was absolutely breathtaking. Turns out we chose a great spot. One thing I liked is that it wasn’t even ridiculously busy there. Just people chilling in the small city park.

There were some clouds at times, but we were able to see the entire lead up as well as totality. It might have been a combination of the clouds around and being in the path of greatest totality, but it got just pitch black during the event. It was surreal, like night time, and it lasted over four minutes. Extremely cool and memorable. Like others have mentioned, the solar flare was really cool to see too, as well as the corona as always. 

Not even going to attempt to post my crappy phone pics, because they barely do it justice.

Did you get to see the prominences, bailey's beads and the diamond ring?

 

the solar 'flare' was actually a solar prominence

[Cascadia_Wx]

Just now, Phishy Wx said:

Did you get to see the prominences, bailey's beads and the diamond ring?

Yes.

[Front Ranger]

5 hours ago, iFred said:

Mountains of New Mexico are a special place in their own right. It might be my ancestral blood talking, but it might be the only place on the continent south of the 37º parallel that I would consider living in.

Second this. Although I might add in parts of northern AZ.

[Front Ranger]

Pretty chilly in the mid range.

[TT-SEA]

10 minutes ago, Front Ranger said:

Pretty chilly in the mid range.

Yes... a trough for a couple days early next week is a given.    But ECMWF and EPS show that its quite progressive and fairly dry.  

[Cascadia_Wx]

On the weather front down here. Had a morning thunderstorm in Austin yesterday that was pretty cool. Loud thunder, heavy rain and hail.

Last night was our last night in Texas, checked out the Big Thicket National preserve yesterday (great spot) and stayed in Beaumont overnight. There were some very impressive nocturnal storms there around 3-4am with an hour or so of almost continuous lightning. Have never really seen anything like it. Like someone was flipping a light switch off and on. The thunder was a continuous low rumble that would sometimes crescendo with what I imagine were the closer strikes. Very cool to experience an event like that.

[Cascadia_Wx]

Just landed in Denver where the skies are partly cloudy with temps in the high 60s. Have a couple hour layover here then should be back to PDX by late this evening.  Looks like Denver and PDX conditions are pretty similar at the moment.

[Cascadia_Wx]

21 hours ago, SilverFallsAndrew said:

Went out to Los Alamos this evening. 

Make it up to Valles Calderas too? If so you had an almost identical itinerary for the day that we had when we were down in Santa Fe, Andrew.

[iFred]

Looking for folks who would be interested in playing host to some sensors, radios, and small computers. I would be collecting atmospheric conditions, gases, radiation, and emergency pages sent out to first responders.

This would be a part of what might be an open mesonet network of stations that provide more data than your typical weather station. As host to the station you would have access to the data coming from it as well as the data collected from other stations.

Send me a DM if you’re interested. This is open for folks in the Pacific Northwest and BC.

[Phishy Wx]

54 minutes ago, Cascadia_Wx said:

On the weather front down here. Had a morning thunderstorm in Austin yesterday that was pretty cool. Loud thunder, heavy rain and hail.

Last night was our last night in Texas, checked out the Big Thicket National preserve yesterday (great spot) and stayed in Beaumont overnight. There were some very impressive nocturnal storms there around 3-4am with an hour or so of almost continuous lightning. Have never really seen anything like it. Like someone was flipping a light switch off and on. The thunder was a continuous low rumble that would sometimes crescendo with what I imagine were the closer strikes. Very cool to experience an event like that.

you'd love the Carolinas in the summer, almost daily T-storms

[Cascadia_Wx]

28 minutes ago, Phishy Wx said:

you'd love the Carolinas in the summer, almost daily T-storms

Probably too warm and humid for my liking, but I would visit.

[Cascadia_Wx]

1 hour ago, Cascadia_Wx said:

Just landed in Denver where the skies are partly cloudy with temps in the high 60s. Have a couple hour layover here then should be back to PDX by late this evening.  Looks like Denver and PDX conditions are pretty similar at the moment.

Correction here. Looks like Denver only had a high in the upper 50s today. My phone weather app must have been acting wacky after coming out of airplane mode.

[Meatyorologist]

1 hour ago, iFred said:

Looking for folks who would be interested in playing host to some sensors, radios, and small computers. I would be collecting atmospheric conditions, gases, radiation, and emergency pages sent out to first responders.

This would be a part of what might be an open mesonet network of stations that provide more data than your typical weather station. As host to the station you would have access to the data coming from it as well as the data collected from other stations.

Send me a DM if you’re interested. This is open for folks in the Pacific Northwest and BC.

I've always wanted to do something like this. I'd be a happy participant.

[MossMan]

I mowed today.