Summer
Tornado Alley
Went to see Sean Casey’s new IMAX film Tornado Alley today. Something I’ve been looking forward to ever since the season ending of Storm Chasers. Was kind of cool because Dr Kosiba was there too (http://www.cswr.org/contents/staff-Karen.php). We chatted for a little bit before we had to get out of the DOW, as others were waiting in line.
The movie was worth the admission, but I do have to say that IMAX films are not so good when the camera is bouncing around. I now understand why some people get nauseous in these theaters. While I enjoyed the movie, I do prefer the HD TV version (of the show) better because of the picture quality. Although, some of the images were pretty neat to see at such scale. It gave you the feeling and grandeur of the size.
In all, it was nice to see what Sean put together. I do hope he provides an extended version if/when it gets released to DVD. If you’re an extreme weather nut, you’ll enjoy it.
As for the weather here, what can I tell you. A fairly strong onshore flow is still causing all the clouds and occasional showers. At least there are sun breaks. Don’t count on much of a change for the next few days though. In fact the clouds could increase a bit as a deeper marine layer settles in. Same story, different day. Still waiting for summer.
Will it get windy later?
Only my way home from work I noticed some striking clouds in the sky. These are called altocumulus lenticular clouds.
According to pilotsfriend.com (http://www.pilotfriend.com/av_weather/meteo/clouds.htm), “This occurs due to a wave effect in the air flow. This wave effect normally develops as a result of a mountain range on windy days. The wave effect forces air to rise above the condensation level and hence allows cloud to form. Due to the rise and fall effect (peaks and troughs), the cloud may only exist in areas of peaks and therefore appear patchy. ”
While these normally happen on the lee side of a large mountain range, the coast range is the only range to the west. The coast range is not large at all. So, what could cause such a phenomenon? Perhaps with the air in front of an approaching system off the coast, moving at a relatively fast speed, is being “folded” as it slows down by friction over the not so smooth land mass. That faster air will eventually mix down to the ground later on to provide a bit of breezy conditions. We’ll see what happens.
In the meantime enjoy the sun. The rain returns again for the weekend.
Rainbow without rain?
A quick thanks to Clark for sending in the idea for this post. He says, “The other day I saw this strange light in the south… not a rainbow… lasted about 6 minutes only…..?” A very good question indeed. This is actually known as a circumhorizontal arc. According to Victoria Gillman at National Geographic, “…it is caused by light passing through wispy, high-altitude cirrus clouds. The sight occurs only when the sun is very high in the sky (more than 58° above the horizon)… [T]he hexagonal ice crystals that make up cirrus clouds must be shaped like thick plates with their faces parallel to the ground.
When light enters through a vertical side face of such an ice crystal and leaves from the bottom face, it refracts, or bends, in the same way that light passes through a prism. If a cirrus’s crystals are aligned just right, the whole cloud lights up in a spectrum of colors.”
So no, it wasn’t a UFO or some anomaly. It’s a real, explainable phenomenon. Courtesy of mother nature and the unique chemical/physical makeup of earths atmosphere.
Thunder?
We could only wish. Unfortunately the line you see in the radar shot is pretty much stationary as a strong mid level onshore flow develops. Still a chance in the southern willamette valley, but not us in Portland. Temps will begin cooling off overnight while moist cooler air moves in. Yep, back to early spring for a few days this week.
46 Degrees, Really?
Memorial day weekend is the kickoff for summer in most parts of the US. The mass exodus Friday from New York City saw many who headed to The Hamptons or Jersey Shore. I know this because I just spent a week there on business. And it truly felt like summer, all week with highs in the mid 80′s and lows in the mid 60′s. So it’s really a surprise to fly home last night and get off the plane, only to feel quite the chill in the jetway. It’s amazing to see people at the airport in WINTER jackets. In fact, driving home the temp outside read 46 degrees. Somebody remind me what time of year it is again? This year will definitely go down in the record books. Could it be the “year without summer”? Stay tuned.
Crepuscular Rays
Storms were in the forecast, but I’ll settle for a pretty sunset. Notice the “lines” perpendicular to the clouds? Those are called crepuscular rays. They’re formed by the blocking of visible light rays by clouds far away towards the horizon.
Natures air conditioning…. and maybe some of her fireworks too
Don’t know about you, but I walked outside to my car this morning and almost froze. Ok, not really, but it was significantly cooler than the last few days. As predicted, marine air has filtered into the valley cooling things off tremendously over the last 12 hours. It feels great (even though I really did like the 105 with the low humidity). The pros are forecasting 90′s today, although my inclination is that with a temp of 60* and humidity of 87% at 7 am, I highly doubt we’ll see anything over 90. Too much moisture in the air now to heat that much, even if the 850mb temps are forecast to be in the 21-25*c range. I would suspect we’ll see 80′s, mid to upper.
In addition, a cutoff low off the coast of California is spinning moisture up the back side. Don’t know if you noticed yesterday, but a mid level stream of moisture spun through western Oregon in the early afternoon (did you see the “puffy” clouds with vertical development?). Looks like we may see more of this as energy rotates around the low and up through Oregon, increasing the chances that we’ll see some showers and even possible thunderstorms west of the cascades. Stay tuned… we all know how much I love this weather. Crossing my fingers for thunderboomers. 
80 Degrees at 6:45am
Are you pulling my chain? 80 degrees at 7 in the morning? Yup, that is correct. After some seering temperatures yesterday (107 in Tigard), the overnight didn’t cool off much. As I headed into work this am, my thermometer read a nice and balmy 80. Very unusual for a low. In fact, I wouldn’t be surprised to find out this was a record “high” low. In addition, how about this, it’s 90 right now and it’s not even 11 am. Cut out from work today and go to the beach… it’s gonna be a scorcher. I wouldn’t be surprised to see temps near 110 in the metro area.
Hot like a hot tub
Here comes the heat. An upper level ridge with very warm 850 mb temps is going to push our temperatures from the upper 90′s to low 100′s over the next few days. No significant cooling is expected, so nights are going to stay warm with lows around 70. Definitely hot. Good thing is that the humidity will stay fairly low, although we could see lots of brush fires from that. Let’s hope that the Low parked off 135* west bumps the high pressure east by late in the week/weekend.
Stay cool!
Summer is here
Well, it’s great to get back to the Pacific Northwest. For the most part. See, while I was in Jersey I had a fun few days where the weather was actually fun. You could watch the storms build by the minute. A weather smorgasbord. As much as it’s nice to be back home, I loathe the summer weather here. Sunshine after morning clouds…. until September. Man do I miss those few wild days a month where there are storms or something exciting is happening like a hurricane. Until then, I’ll just put my shades on and live vicariously through the web to experience the fun. Stay tuned, maybe something will happen here this summer. Maybe.
