Karl Bonner's Weather Blog

With the arrival of west wind and temps in the 40s today Saturday, our late February cold snap in the Columbia Gorge is officially over! And what an event it was…roughly six days from beginning to end, and with multiple snowstorms, it was the most impressive late February cold spell in our region since 1993. TEMPS Here are the temperature stats for the five “core” days of the cold event, February 19-23 (Mon-Fri): DATE         HI   LO  MEAN DEPART 2/19/18   …

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This is going to be super short, because I’m still sick. I hope you enjoyed “Round 1” of our late February cold-weather bonanza, because Round 2 is beginning even as I write this. Over the last 24 to 48 hours, weather forecast models have shifted toward more and more snow for Tuesday afternoon/evening, and possibly for early Thursday morning as well. Now here are the morning 12z models. First, the GFS: And here’s the GEM: And finally, the super-snowy NAM:…

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We’re now less than 24 hours away from a somewhat historic late-season cold snap in the Pacific Northwest and Columbia River Gorge. And it’s coming on the heels of one of the mildest midwinter periods we’ve ever experienced, which makes for more of a shock.   Summary     1. It’s still not looking favorable for major snow accumulations in the Willamette Valley or Gorge lowlands. The fundamental problem is that there’s not enough moisture as the really cold air…

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    I would like to apologize for my long hiatus from weather blogging. It’s just been time to focus on life in general these past couple months. That’s included several trips to Portland: to search for new employment opportunities, to hang out with some of my weather buddies in real life, and even to go dancing. I’m singing a few songs in a new alt-pop band that my long-time friend Jimmy helped put together. Add in a nearly-full-time job…

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Wow…what a crazy 10-12 days it has been. Never before in my life as a WX geek, have I seen this much uncertainty & disagreement as to what’s going to happen 7 or even 3-4 days ahead in the forecasts. WHAT’S BEEN GOING ON? I’m not going to dig up a bunch of graphics, but remember that ridge / dry spell we had a week or two ago? Well this week the ridge “retrograded” a bit out into the Eastern…

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It’s been quite a while since I posted last, but not too much of interest has happened since then. The biggest “story” was our record warm Thanksgiving in The Dalles, at 67 degrees F. We’ve actually had 3 of the last 4 Thanksgivings, turn out extremely balmy in the eastern Gorge. Don’t worry, I’m sure the more typical 40s will be back within a year…or two at most. It’s been well-advertised on weather models for over a week now, but…

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It begins on December 20/21 and ends March 19/20, if you follow the conventional calendar. It begins on November 6/7 and ends February 3/4, if you go strictly by sun angle. It begins on December 1 and ends February 28/29, if you’re into weather and climate data. …But if you REALLY ask an expert on seasonal weather in the Pacific Northwest…..they will tell you that when it comes to normal temperatures in the lowlands, winter begins around the 20th of…

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I hope you all had a happy Halloween these past few days. I enjoyed a weekend stay in Portland, where I attended my first-ever OMSI Winter Weather Conference and got to meet several of my online weather buddies in person! Then by evening of the next day I was back in White Salmon, to celebrate the pagan festival of Samhain, which is a rough ‘ancestor’ of the modern Halloween. It was a very warm end to October, at least for…

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Some weather geeks were paying close attention to southern California early last week. An unusually hot Santa Ana wind event was underway from late Sunday the 23rd, through Tuesday the 25th. Long Beach hit 105 degrees both Monday and Tuesday, and much of the LA Basin was between 100 and 105! That’s simply unheard of this late in the season, even in SoCal. Normal late October high temps are in the 70s along the immediate coast, and about 80 if…

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That was an exciting weekend! A very long atmospheric river originating in Japan, set itself up over the Pacific Northwest from the middle of last week through Sunday, with the heaviest action on Saturday. The Dalles got 0.90″ of rain in one day while Bonneville Dam got over 5″ during the weekend! That led to landslides near Washougal, flash flooding in the Eagle Creek burn zone, and one traffic fatality on I-84 near Hood River. As of Monday, however, that…

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