|
|
« October 2007 |
Main
| December 2007 »
Get ready everybody, this going to be a weekend I think were going to remember here in the Pacific Northwest. Not one but two weather events will hit the region in the next 72 hours.
Cold continues to leak out of the Columbia River Gorge and through the Cascades. A low pressure area will develop off the coast tonight and bring snow down to the valley floor Saturday.
If you're traveling to Eugene for the Civil war game I've bad and good news. First the bad, if you're leaving out of Portland mid-morning you'll be be looking at snow on the windshield. The good news is I don't think the snow amount to more than a trace to possibly 1" on the valley floor. The snow won't fall much further south than Wilsonville. More snow is likely in the hills around Portland.
If you're in the Columbia River Gorge, The Cascades then you're looking at a major snow event Saturday, with snow levels slowly rising.
Sunday, our second weather event arrives, a powerful wind storm. The remains to two old Pacific Typhoons have combined. While the storms are no longer actual typhoons they will still pack a punch! Sundays storms are still well offshore but computer models have them reaching us late Sunday morning with winds increasing through the day and peaking early Monday. Rainfall amounts will be substantial. Nearly 2" locally. On the Washington Coast up to 7" is Possible.
Wind speeds on the coast could easily exceed 70mph with regular gusts over 90mph! It may sound obvious--but winds that powerful can cause severe damage to homes and property.
Temperatures will climb from the 30s Saturday to near 60 by Monday. A lot of the recent snow in the mountains will melt and may help push rivers over there banks. Bottom line it's going to be weekend to remember! Things finally settle down by Monday late morning. Except for picking up the pieces, we'll be back to pretty normal conditions by Tuesday.
Dave
So Here I go. Walking out on a limb, and right now it feels real skinny! I've spent the morning pouring over satellite images, computer models upper air soundings and even pilot reports! So now I have to commit-- maybe I should be committed! It looks like Portland, Western Oregon & Southwest Washington are going to flirt with some low elevation snow.
A vigorous area of low pressure is dropping out of the Gulf of Alaska today. The storm is has lots of moisture and a fair amount of cold air. The moisture from todays storm along with lingering cold air over the region will push snow levels down late today and Thursday.
As I've learned in the past, all you have to do in this part of the country is mention the word SNOW and a near panic starts. For 90% of the population I think this is going to be a non-event, just a cold rain will fall. At the higher elevations of the West Hills, some light snow will develop late today or tonight. I'm calling for a snowline between 1000ft to 1500ft.
Take a look at the map below and you can get a general idea where you fall in the rain and snow line.
In the Coast Range, Cascades and The Columbia River Gorge, More than light accumulations can be expected. The Cascades are looking at nearly a foot in the next 30 hours. A snow Advisory will be issued later for the Cascades and the Gorge. Snow levels will remain low through Friday but moisture to produce more snow will limited.
Long term it looks like we're in for a reversal of weather patterns, A milder, windy and wet storm arrives late Sunday, that storm could pack a wallop! Winds to 80mph on the coast may occur. Oh forecasting in the Pacific Northwest in the winter, it's just like riding a roller coaster.
Dave
If you caught the early evening news Wednesday night you may have seen me doing the weather from inside the Rose Garden before the Blazers game against the New Jersey Nets. We had a table set up in the south concourse, and I signed calendars before the game and at half time. I want to thank EVERYONE who stopped by, and the good folks at Blazers, especially Rebecca Ettlinger and Todd Bosma, for all their help. We had a great turnout and raised a lot of money for the Business Education Compact through calendar sales. Here are a few images from the event. Below, a few hard-core Blazer fans stop, shop and chat:
We had a great crowd of people as game time approached.
I was giving away super-cool FIRST ALERT STORM TEAM umbrellas with each Weather Calendar. Supplies are dwindling, but I've saved some for my remaining signings at Pro Photo Supply:
Upcoming Calendar Signings At Pro Photo Supply
Saturday November 24, 2007 1-3 pm
Saturday December 1, 2007 1-3 pm
Saturday December 15, 2007 1-3 pm
Here's a shot of KGW photographer Kristin Henderson doing the live shot for the news.
width="775" height="519" />
Kristin's camera is wired to our micro-wave truck just outside, which was manned by engineer Dave Angier. The truck sends the video and audio signals back to the station.
The small box on my belt is my wireless mic, the big box is called an IFB, or interruptable feedback. This is how I hear what's going over the air. That's the feedback. The "interrupt" part is how producers back at the station talk to me. When they press a button in the control room and speak into a mic, I hear them instead of our programming. This is how they queue me and and tell me what's going on in the show.
These are all the volunteers from the BEC that made the Weather Calendar signing happen. Thanks to them for volunteering their time! I couldn't have done it without their hard work and dedication. Remember, all the money raised through the Weather Calendar goes to help local schools, teachers and students through the BEC. You can now preview all the Weather Calendar pictures on kgw.com. Check 'em out! I hope you enjoy looking at them as much as I enjoyed making them.
I hope to see ya at Pro Photo on Saturday,
Matt Zaffino
KGW Chief Meteorologist
Oh how do I love Thanksgiving. Turkey, mashed potatoes, gravy and pumpkin pie. Two pieces of pie, with whipped cream! Oh how I hate Thanksgiving, the potatoes, gravy and pie equal up to 5000 calories! YIKES! It'll take me days to work that off !
I started working off my Thanksgiving holiday meal bright and early this morning. My routine for burning the calories--an upper body work out. Brisk waving excersices worked best. I even multi-tasked this mornings work out. I did my excercises during the annual Macy's Holiday Parade.
The brisk waving served two purposes. First, it helped burn off some of yesterdays potato and pie calories. Second it helped keep me warm! Unlike recent years this years parade was held under blue skies and bright sunshine. A lot of people along the parade route were also turning blue-- from the cold.
Temperatures were in the low 30s, when you factor in the wind chill it felt like the middle 20s!
Rain or shine it doesn't matter thousands of people still turned out along the 1 1/2 mile route to watch the parade. This year parkas, caps and mittens were the choice of fashion replacing umbrellas.
My perspective for the parade was from the back of a beautiful 1966 Ford Galaxy convertible. I pulled out my cell phone camera and snapped off some pictures. Even though the temperatures were chilly the crowd was warm. I've included a link for a slide show with more pictures.
http://www.kgw.com/perl/common/slideshow/sspop.pl?recid=6517&location=www.kgw.com
The holiday parade has been the traditional kick off to the Christmas season here in Portland (yes I say Christmas ) Orginally designed by the Meier and Frank Company to get shoppers into downtown. Macy's now owns Meier and Frank, the parade route has changed but the effect is the same. I can't tell you how many of the people I saw and talked to had been out since 5:00 this morning shopping. Many told me they were using the parade as a final event of day, before going home to get a nap! Shop ship until you drop! Gee,I just hope Sandy, is using her credit card and not mine today!
Dave
OK OK I relent! My last blog, titled An Eventful Weekend, was about the two events I hosted last weekend, BorderClash at Nike on Sunday being the second of the two. Many KGWers participated in the media race. Stef claims she and Gina won the women's division. That's cool. But she seemed a bit miffed that I had no pictures of her in my blog. Which I didn't, but only because she bolted outta there right after the race. I guess she was still movin' at race pace clear into the parking lot!
But, since I like Stef and we're good friends, I have posted this SPECIAL Stef Stricklen edition of the Weather Blog with a picture of ONLY her below:
Except, one minor problem. It's not our Stef! I took this shot in Italy in October. My Dad, wife Lisa and I were eating at a large family-style restaurant in Rome (on the way to the town in southern Italy where my 84 year-old Dad's parents were born, but that's a different blog) when Lisa, who is really good friends with Stef, spotted "Italian Stef". So I just had to play paparazzi and get a shot of her. But boy, "Italian Stef" is a dead ringer for KGW Stef, don't you think? Right down to the smokin' red specs.
Matt Zaffino
KGW Chief Meteorologist
The rush has already started. Airports are getting crowded, Highway speeds are slowing and train stations are becoming packed. It's the annual Thanksgving travel migration, everybody seems to be going somewhere over the next few days.
The good news is that weather is not going to play a factor if you travel remains confined to the Pacific Northwest.
Yes, low clouds and fog are hanging over Portland and the Willamette Valley. The cloud cover is not slowing down flights in or out of PDX. The roadways remain dry and afternoon temperatures are going to be well above freezing.
If your travel plans take you over the mountains once you'll break out of the cloud cover to blue skies and sunshine. Oh by the way Timberline Lodge, has 26 inches of snow, they begin ski operations today.
width="347" height="236" />
Temperatures will remain chilly up in the mountains, I don't expect anymore snow -- at the same time what they have won't be melting either.
If your Thanksgiving is taking you the the Oregon Coast, here's a preview.
For the rest of the week the beaches will remain cloud free. Temperatures will reach the upper 50s, except on the south coast. Temperatures from North Bend to Brookings could hit 70 degrees-- (no that's not a typo) on Thanksgiving. Please pass me my 7 iron along with the mashed potatoes.
The dry weather will hold through the week and into the weekend. Right now showers may return to area by Sunday. If wet weather does return chances are showers will be light and should not cause a problem for air or road travels.
Finally If you headed to the airport to pick somebody up I've included a cool link called flightaware. It tracks airline flights across the country. You can follow a flight by airline name, flight number or departure and arrival locations. It's a pretty handy tool !
http://flightaware.com/
Regards,
Dave
I had the privilege to host the Medical Teams International (formerly Northwest Medical Teams) annual dinner and auction Saturday night. The auction was held in MTIs warehouse in SW Portland. You could peak around the curtains and catch glimpses of the boxes of medical supplies stacked high, knowing the money raised that night would go to buy more supplies and to get them delivered to disaster areas the world over, like the cyclone-wracked areas in Bangladesh and the devastating floods in Mexico. Where there's a need anywhere in the world, you usually find medical personnel and supplies from Portland's Medical Teams International.
The money raised Saturday night to support MTIs mission was spectacular! Last year this event raised half a million dollars. The goal this year was an ambitious $700,000, through the auction, raffle and silent auction. I love silent auctions. It’s like bargain hunting for cool stuff while giving charitably at the same time. This was one of the biggest and best I've seen. Lisa and I got a great deal on a one-week condo stay in Sunriver and a new Nike putter for me. I'm always a sucker for golf items. But what always blows me away at charity auctions is the general call for giving. This is when the auctioneer simply asks people to give at a range of funding levels, and invariably, the auction paddles go up. There were four donations of $25,000 a piece. The level of philanthropy in our community is something we can all be proud of. So what was the grand total? A record $864,000! Thanks to all who participated and gave so generously, especially the volunteers and MTI staff who I'm sure worked past midnight to make it all happen.
BORDERCLASH 9
I was up early Sunday morning to beat feet to my second host event of the weekend, but this one included some exercise. The 9th annual BorderClash was held in the cold rain at Nike World Headquarters in Beaverton. This is a really fun event that pits the top 40 boys and girls high school cross-country runners from Oregon against the top 40 from Washington.
MTI.
We do a little media race before the main events, and KGW was strongly represented. In fact, kgw.com's webmaster Frank Mungeam won the media race with an 8:20 time. Frank is really fast! Although the finishing order changed, the top three in the media race remained the same from last year: Frank, Bill Gallagher from KXL Radio and Nike's Bob Applegate.
That's Frank on the left drinking the drink of champions: luke-warm black coffee. Next is Gina Zandy, KGWs 5pm producer, yours truly, (I was, uh, in the 2nd tier of runners with a time of 10:29, well behind the leaders on the 1.5 mile track), and Joe Arndt, KGWs assignment manager.
Same as above except between Gina and Joe, that's Leilani Welch, KGWs 630 producer and team cheerleader, only because she broke her foot in a marathon back in the summer and can't run for a while. Or snowboard, meaning the slopes of Mt Hood are safe for the first few days of the season anyway. Yes, there's Frank again clutching his luke warm coffee, calling all his running buddies to tell tell them: I won! I won!
About 2,000 spectators came out to watch the main events. What I love about BorderClash is the “Braveheart” style start. The two teams begin at two separate starting lines and run straight at each other for the first 100 meters of the 4.4 kilometer race before the courses merge. With drums beating
and all those feet pounding, it's a total adrenaline rush! And that's just for the spectators. Once again, Team Washington took first place. The boys winner is Miles Unterreiner from Gig Harbor, WA. The girls winner is Nichole Cochran from Tacoma, WA. I don't know the names of the runners pictured below, but they sure were working hard.
Washington has beaten Oregon in 7 of the 9 BorderClash races. The BorderClash trophy will reside at Seattle’s NikeTown until BorderClash 10, next fall.
TEAM KGW
From Left: Why is the weather guy the only one still wearing shorts?, Leilani Welch, Joe Arndt, Jennfer Iveson; Reporter, Gina Zandy, Frank (streaming online, streaming on foot) Mungeam, Rich Kurz; Special Projects Manager, and Kerry Arndt; Producer.
We had a great team and a great time! Looking forward to next year already!
Matt Zaffino
KGW Chief Meteorologist
by Dave Salesky
Freshies in the Cascades!
All that rain over the weekend, over 1.32" Saturday and Sunday has brought a lot of snow the the Cascades. Almost a foot and a half at Timberline Lodge, and nearly as much at Mt. Hood Meadows. All of the Cascade Moutain passes are covered with snow today.
Cold and unsettled air remains over the region and that means more showers are on the way. Rain showers locally, maybe even some afternoon thunder showers. In the mountains the continued showers could bring another 4" to 6" of snow through this evening. A snow advisory will remain for the Cascades from Mount St. Helens in the north to the California border to the south. This afternoon some of the heavier showers could-- read could, bring a mixture of rain and wet snow as low as 1000ft. If it happens we won't see any thing stick to the ground still, I'm sure the phones will be ringing off the hook in the newsroom!
I think after this evening the showers will shut down. I know a lot of viewers are taking to the roads this week, visiting family and friends for Thanksgiving. Tuesday through Saturday will be dry but chilly. At lower elevations roads will dry out and stay that way. In the mountains the snow will remain with the cold and dry conditions. In other words the snow on the mountains will stay in place, once ODOT gets the roads plowed and sanded they should be easily traveled.
For skiers As of right now I've not heard a peep out of of Timberline, Meadows, or Bachelor. As we all know, resorts would love to open for Thanksgiving. I'm sure we'll here something from the resort operators in the next 24 hours.
I've included a link to the ODOT website, this is a great spot to get up to the minute information on road and mountain pass conditions.
For those of you that don't know, I have off on Thursday and Friday. That's my 'weekend.' And this past weekend, I had an urge to go hiking. So, I choose a hike, packed my supplies (water, warm clothes, compass, fire-starters, some food - all the essentials, should I get stuck out there), and then headed into the Coast Range. I did know a storm was coming, but I just had to get outside! And I'm so glad I got out there - what I discovered on the trail was really incredible.
A shot of Kings Mountain, Courtesy Terry Richard and The Oregonian
My hike began from an elevation of about 500' - it was raining lightly, and there was virtually no wind. As I huffed it up toward Kings Mountain, and climbed steadily - 1,500' - 2,000' - the wind was getting more and more impressive. As was the rain. I kept going, though, and eventually broke through the canopy of evergreens and came up into a cleared mountainside. After hiking about 100 feet, I was amazed.
The wind was howling in off of the Pacific, and the rain was being blown sideways. I could actually watch the clouds come up and over top of the crest I was standing on. It was really just amazing to watch, and actually see what it is like up there when a storm is pushing in off the Pacific. Of course, it wasn't all that strong of a storm. And I was only witnessing the leading edge of it. But it was still amazing.
Did I keep going? No. I decided, even though I had all my random survival supplies, that I didn't want to get stuck up there. So I came back down after witnessing the wild weather, and drove on back to Portland.
My calves are still hurting, by the way. =)
Joe
A whole lot of rain is on the way for Portland and much of the rest of the area this weekend. Rain arrived last night and probably won't stop until late Sunday. A cold front is stalling out over just east of the Cascades. With the front stalled out we're going to see waves of precipitation arrive off the coast.
Our futurecast computer model which is based on the National Weather Services (NWS) North American Model (NAM) is predicting 1.75" To 2.00" of rain by Sunday.
By Sunday the front will sag south, rain in the Cascades will transition to snow. Snow levels by Sunday night will fall well below pass levels. The mountain snow won't last long, drier and colder air will arrive by Tuesday. A big ridge of high pressure will set up in the Rocky Mountain region. The colder dry air will keep storms from reaching the Pacific Northwest.
If you're traveling by road for the Thanksgiving holiday, expect dry but chilly conditions over the mountain passes.
Regards
Dave
This morning our newsroom was a buzz about the 7.7 magnitude earthquake off the coast of Chile and Argentina. A tremor that size can cause a lot of damage and injury. A quake that close to the coast can also generate a big tsunami wave! Briefly a tsunami warning was issued for Chile, Argentina even Hawaii! Along the Oregon and Washington Coast a tsunami advisory was issued.
Below is a map showing travel times for tsunami waves across the Pacific Ocean. It would take 12 to 14 hours for a wave to reach Oregon from Chile. Each one of the colored bands equals about one hour travel time.
Briefly the newsroom was a buzz the question -- Tsunami Advisory for the Oregon Coast. Is a wave headed our way? In a word the answer is no.
The Tsunami Warning Center has four categories levels of alerts for a tsunami.
1. Tsunami Warning: The highest level of tsunami alert. Warnings are issued when there is an imminent threat of a tsunami due to a large undersea earthquake. Warnings advise people to take immediate action to protect themselves from a tsunami.
2. Tsunami Watch: Second highest level of alert. Watches are issued to provide advance alert that an area could be impacted by a tsunami wave. A watch is issued based on seismic information without confirmation of a wave.
3. Tsunami Advisory: Third level of alert. Advisories are issued when a watch or warning has been issued for another region in the same ocean. An advisory means that some " non- destructive sea level changes may occur." An advisory can be upgraded to a watch or warning if conditions warrant.
4. Information Statement: Fourth level of alert. A statement is issued advising an earthquake has occured. In most cases the statement indicates there's no threat of a destructive wave.
Below is a link for more information on tsunami waves:
http://wcatwc.arh.noaa.gov/
Regards
Dave Salesky
Meteorologist KGW-TV
The first strong wind storm (and almost certainly not the last) of this winter season barreled through the Northwest Monday with some impressive wind gusts. The top gust was measured at Cape Meares in Tillamook County at 92 mph. Top for the Coast, that is. On Mt Hood, winds reached 107 mph at the top of the Magic Mile chairlift, at 7,000 ft. There were many more gusts on the Coast over 70 mph.
Swells measured by buoys off the Coast were equally impressive:
23 miles west of Newport: 33 ft
Columbia River Bar: 30 ft
West of Tillamook: 31 ft
In eastern Oregon there were several reports of wind damage. Around Joseph in Wallowa County, trees fell on homes and I had one email from a viewer saying half her neighbor's barn blew away. Something, possible shingles from her roof, blew through the rear window of her car.
Northwest weather settles down Tuesday. For one day. The cold front that brought the stormy weather has stalled in southern Oregon, but will begin to march northward again as a warm front (meaning warm air is advancing), pushed along by another strong storm developing in the eastern Pacific. The new storm, however, will stay much farther offshore than Monday's storm, sparing us the damaging winds. The exception will be in the western Gorge and eastern Multnomah County, where east winds will gust to 40 mph on a very wet and windy Wednesday. The saving grace is it'll be far too warm for ice or snow. For now.
Stay tuned,
Matt Zaffino
KGW Chief Meteorologist
Just when I was starting to worry about when and if the usual November weather would arrive, Mother Nature comes through. Boy Oh Boy has she come through. Since early this morning wind gusts on the coast have been hitting 60 plus miles an hour. Peak gusts from this storm have topped 80mph!
A high wind warning will stay posted for the Oregon Coast until 1pm. Portland & The Willamette Valley will be under a Wind advisory until 4pm. A wind advisory means gusts could be between 35 to 50mph.
As the area of low pressure continues the track north the pressure gradient will ease. ( non-weather geek speak translation, the winds will die down)
After the cold front moves by late today snow levels in the mountains will come down. 4000 foot snow levels will remain across the region most of the week. Several inches of new snow are forecasted through the week.
Dave
Portland area weather geeks from the public, private and academic sectors got together Friday for the annual "What Will The Winter Weather Be Like?" meeting at OMSI, sponsored by the Oregon Chapter of the American Meteorological Society. Amazingly, most agreed we're probably in for a stormy winter. The reason is La Nina, which is the name of a pattern of colder than average sea surface temperatures in the tropical Pacific.
What could ocean temperatures in the tropical Pacific possibly have to do with Northwest weather? The tropical Pacific is the largest earth-based source of heat and moisture on the planet. It's the 900-pound gorilla of climate forcing. When it gets a cold, we all feel the fever.
But enough of the meteorological metaphors. The graphic below from the Oregon Climate Service describes how colder than average water in the eastern tropical Pacific, and warmer than average water inthe western tropical Pacific impact our winter weather patterns.
Anecdotally, what I've noticed in La Nina years such as this is the winter tends to start slowly, but really picks up after New Years. This is when we're most likely to see valley snow, wind storms, or flooding rains. We tend to get a lot of wild swings in our weather patterns in La Nina years because the La Nina pattern is almost opposite of what is considered our "normal" weather pattern, and the atmosphere is frequently re-adjusting itself. So we can end up with cold weather and a lot of low elevation snow, followed by a pineapple express and lots of high elevation rain. A perfect recipe for flooding, of course. So storm-watchers can delight in the prospects for an active winter, everyone else, get ready to hunker down.
Matt Zaffino
KGW Chief Meteorologist
P.S. I've picked January 8th as the day for Portland's first snowflakes.
The storm door is open, and I don't mean the one on the back porch! A ridge of high pressure that has kept Oregon and Washington closed and locked out of our normal November rains has been broken down. A series of weather systems are now lined up poised to march over the region.
The storms will bring progressively cooler and wetter weather. Snow levels in the mountains will drop below 4000ft by Sunday. The rain drops on our Timberline Skycam this morning will be snow flakes by early next week. Maybe up to 6" possible.
The snow in the mountains and the rain at lower elevations will continue for the foreseeable future. with the blocking ridge out of the picture there is nothing to stop developing storms from reaching the Oregon & Washington coastlines. We'll likely make up our November rain defeict by early next week and continue stay wet for 7 maybe 10 days!
Stay Dry!
Dave
Our two-week dry spell is about to come to an end, but it's going out cookin'! Temperatures in the Cascades have been outrageously warm the last couple of days:
Some Cascade foothill locations were even warmer. Horse Creek, at elevation 3402 ft east of Salem, hit 70-degrees Tuesday while a bit farther south, east of Albany, Yellowstone Mtn at 3080 ft hit 73-degrees!
When it's warmer in the mountains than it is in the valleys, this is called a temperature inversion, because the temperature profile of the atmosphere is the opposite, or inverse, of how it normally gets colder as you ascend.
The graph below is called a sounding. It's made from data collected from the weather balloon that is released twice a day from Salem (and about 70 other locations in the continental U.S.).
The solid red line is the temperature trace, the dotted red line is the dewpoint temperature trace. The closer the two lines are to each other, the higher the humidity. Notice how the temperature increases as you go up in altitude: the solid red line moves from left to right more than it goes up, indicating a strong inversion. Also notice where the dotted line suddenly moves far away from the solid line: that's the top of the fog layer.
Below is a table of the same data presented in the graph above. You can check temperatures here against the graph.
RAOB: 00110807.UPA // 72694 - KSLE - SALEM/McNARY, OR at 00Z 08 Nov 2007
Data Type: CODED Integrated data levels: 128
Lat: 44°55'00" N Lon: 123°00'00" W Elev: 61 meters
________________________________________________________________________________
Height Pres T Td RH DD/FF CAT LLWS Icing - Type
Level (ft-MSL) (mb) (F) (F) (%) (deg/kts) (FAA) (AF @ 75% RH)
________________________________________________________________________________
41 8000 761.8 275/13
40 7398 779.0 46.0 17.2 31
39 7053 789.0 46.8 30.6 53
38 7000 790.5 275/11
37 6643 801.0 48.2 30.2 49 MDT
36 6272 812.0 48.9 36.3 62
35 6105 817.0 49.3 33.1 53
34 6005 820.0 49.6 35.2 57
33 6000 820.1 310/8
32 5905 823.0 50.4 25.2 37 LGT
31 5806 826.0 51.1 20.5 30
30 5314 841.0 51.8 30.2 43
29 5022 850.0 52.9 33.1 47 280/8
28 4509 866.0 54.7 38.5 54
27 4414 869.0 55.4 26.6 33
26 4256 874.0 56.5 16.9 21
25 4098 879.0 57.2 17.6 21
24 4000 882.1 280/5
23 3848 887.0 57.2 23.0 26 MDT
22 3631 894.0 56.8 17.2 21
21 3354 903.0 56.1 27.3 33
20 3110 911.0 56.5 33.1 41
19 3000 914.6 60/5
18 2718 924.0 57.2 33.8 41
17 2688 925.0 57.2 33.8 41 35/5
16 2598 928.0 57.2 39.2 51 LGT
15 2538 930.0 57.2 35.6 44
14 2479 932.0 56.8 38.8 51
13 2272 939.0 56.8 38.8 51
12 2243 940.0 56.8 35.2 44
11 2000 948.3 35/8
10 1951 950.0 55.8 39.6 54 MDT
9 1777 956.0 55.8 37.8 51
8 1690 959.0 55.8 41.4 58
7 1461 967.0 52.2 43.2 71
6 1264 974.0 45.7 43.0 90
5 1153 978.0 44.2 41.4 90
4 1000 983.5 120/1
3 551 1000.0 46.8 41.0 80 360/2
2 227 1012.0 48.6 39.6 71
1 200 1013.0 48.9 45.9 89 340/3
I hope you've enjoyed the warm dry weather, it comes to an end late Thursday night. After which we'll be finding snow in the mountains, not 60° temperatures.
Matt Zaffino
KGW Chief Meteorologist
mzaffino@kgw.com
My story today - about climate change and Mt. Hood's glaciers - is a story that needs to be told; Mt Hood's shrinking glaciers are just a symptom of a much larger problem.
For more than two decades the debate over climate change and global warming has raged. Is global warming happening? If it is happening, are people to blame? Questions like these have swirled about the scientific community for years, often with murky or inconclusive answers. Over the past couple of years, those answers have become much more clear.
The Intergovernmental Panel on Climate Change (IPCC), established by the United Nations back in 1988, has become the authoritative source on information about climate change. And their most recent report - issued earlier this year - was the most conclusive one yet. It stated that warming of the climate system is unequivocal. In other words, the planet is warming up, and there is no longer any doubt about it. Even the cause of that warming has become clearer. According to the IPCC, there is greater than a 90% chance that this warming is because of people, and the amount of carbon dioxide that we have released into our atmosphere.
So what to do about it? Aggressive cuts in greenhouse gas emissions are necessary to try to reverse climate change. And even though many countries are tenaciously working to cut their greenhouse gas emissions, it will still take time to reverse the climate change trend. More than likely, temperatures worldwide will continue to warm throughout all of our lifetimes. It's simply a matter of how warm temperatures will get. But by reducing our emissions, we'll lessen the impacts from climate change and global warming.
If you have any questions about climate change, feel free to shoot me an e-mail. You can also click here to visit The Intergovernmental Panel on Climate Change's website.
Joe Michaels
That's what Michael Convery, our traffic guy was telling everybody Tuesday morning. Dense fog formed early in the morning and brought the comute to a snails pace. Visibility by mid morning was down to less than 200 feet near the Columbia River. Portland and Vancouver were not the only areas affected. Take a look at the satellite image below, fog formed up and down the length of the Willamette Valley.
Like the past few mornings, the fog will burn off for a mild and sunny afternoon. High temperatures will bump up into the lower 60s today. Just remember this is November, the sunny and warm weather is the exception - not the norm. In other words the other shoe is about to drop. Rain is on the way, the first we've seen this month.
A series of progressively more organized weather system will start of change our current weather pattern this week. Late Thursday, rain and cooler weather will arrive. It will open the door for several days of precipitation.
While rain will fall at lower elevations, some much welcomed snow can be expected in the Cascades. Snow levels by the weekend may get down as low as pass level. I don't think we'll see enough snow for resorts to open, but at least will will bring a base accumulation.
Regards
Dave
Famed Portland, retailer Tom Peterson, used to knock on your TV screen and shout, " HEY WAKE UP! WAKE UP. " Tuesday I'll be saying the samething. Wake Up Everbody, Wake Up! Not for a sale at Tom & Gloria's store, but for something I think even better!
The International Space Station and Space Shuttle will pass directly over Portland, early Tuesday morning. In Central & Eastern Oregon the view will be spectacular. Locally if fog stays out of Portland & The Willamette Valley the fly by will be one of the best views in recent memory.
My suggestion, grab a cup of coffee, head for the backyard before you head off to work and the kids head to school. If you miss Tuesday's fly over Wednesday will bring another chance of seeing Shuttle Discovery & the ISS passing overhead. I've Included a link to the NASA website that shows Wednesday's fly by. The link will also let you see time and locations of space station fly bys if you're not in the Portland Metro area.
Oh one more thing as since I started this blog entry quoting Tom Peterson, I'll finish it by saying viewing the shuttle and ISS is free! And free is a very good price!
Dave
http://spaceflight.nasa.gov/realdata/sightings/cities/view.cgi?country=United_States®ion=Oregon&city=Portland
For you stargazers out there, you may want to roll out of bed a bit earlier than usual and catch a glimpse of the International Space Station and the Space Shuttle overhead this week.
File Photo
The 'viewing schedule' is listed below:
Monday, Nov 5
ISS - 5:56 am, S to SE portion of sky at elevation of 21 degrees
Shuttle - 5:56 am, S to SE portion of sky at elevation of 21 degrees
Tuesday, Nov 6
ISS - 6:18 am, SW to E portion of sky at elevation of 59 degrees
Shuttle - 6:18 am, SW to ENE portion of sky at elevation of 60 degrees
Wednesday, Nov 7
ISS - 5:07 am, S to ESE portion of sky at elevation of 21 degrees
Shuttle - 4:56 am, SSE to ESE portion of sky at elevation of 12 degrees
Not only will you be able to see the station and shuttle, you may even be able to see the separation of the shuttle from the space station during Monday morning's sighting.
Enjoy!
Joe
To me, fall marks the beginning of storm season, and a few last rounds of golf with an eye toward ski season. And the launch of the Northwest Weather Calendar! It's available at Albertson's, Joes, and Pro Photo Supply in northwest Portland, which is where I'll be this Saturday signing calendars. Below is a list of scheduled calendar signings. You can also buy the calendar online. This year's calendar has alI new pictures, including a winning entry from our Oregon Naturally Photo Contest, and lots of great weather factoids and information. Keep checking kgw.com for the latest information on the calendar and signings. I'll be posting snapshots of the pictures here soon so you can preview the shots online. And I hope to see you at one of the signings!
Matt Zaffino
KGW Chief Meteorologist
Calendar Signings:
Pro Photo Supply
Saturday November 3, 1-3 pm
Saturday November 24, 1-3 pm
Saturday December 1, 1-3 pm
Saturday December 15, 1-3 pm
Portland Trail Blazers v. New Jersey Nets
Wednesday November 21
Portland Rose Garden
Exact time and location to be determined.
May 2008
| Sun |
Mon |
Tue |
Wed |
Thu |
Fri |
Sat |
| |
|
|
|
1 |
2 |
3 |
| 4 |
5 |
6 |
7 |
8 |
9 |
10 |
| 11 |
12 |
13 |
14 |
15 |
16 |
17 |
| 18 |
19 |
20 |
21 |
22 |
23 |
24 |
| 25 |
26 |
27 |
28 |
29 |
30 |
31 |
|
