Weather Blog - West Coast Weather

14 Aug

Tornadoes: Nature’s Deadliest Surprises

General Info, Historical Weather Data, UncategorizedComments are off

Nature’s deadliest surprises, tornadoes can spontaneously develop in supercell thunderstorms, along squall lines, near the ends of bow echoes, and within hurricanes after they’ve moved ashore. They may generate the strongest winds of any atmospheric phenomenon: over 200 mph. Annually, they kill dozens and injure hundreds. Typically they are responsible for around $100 million in

14 Jul

Frontal Squall Lines

General Info, Poor Visibility, Turbulence, Weather ConditionsComments are off

Frontal squall lines form just ahead of surface cold fronts and dry lines, and also ahead of upper-level fronts. If the necessary conditions exist, they may stretch to hundreds of miles in length. They may bring tornadoes and hail but they’re more commonly associated with strong straight-line winds. If the flow along a squall line

15 Jun

Hook Echoes- Unstable Air Mass

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Hook echoes are meteorological phenomena named after their shapes. They’re created when vertical wind shear causes warm, moist air, sucked in by the unstable movements of a supercell thunderstorm, to mix with a different incoming channel of drier, cooler air. The shape they assume resembles a hook because the two streams of air aren’t mixing

19 Apr

Hazard of ice crystals

Icing on WingsWith 0 comments

Clouds at temperatures between 0 and -40C contain a mixture of ice crystals and super-cooled water. At colder temperatures, ice crystals prevail. Super-cooled water is responsible for the threat of aircraft structural icing, but at lower temperatures, this threat decreases. Because of the lack of super-cooled water, icing, other that of light intensity, is unlikely

17 Apr

Microburst

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A microburst is a strong downward oriented wind usually associated with thunderstorms. These winds usually form within a cumulonimbus cloud that is mature and are often associated with heavy rain and perhaps along with hail. These winds can cause major issues such as crashes with airplanes during take-off and or landing. In an attempt to

14 Mar

General Circulation Models – Historical and Future Perspective

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The General Circulation Models (GCM) are weather forecast models that predict general weather patterns for many years out. Some of these models forecast out to 30 to 50 years. The main purpose is to run different variables to see what extent man impacts are on climate (Global Warming or Climate Change). One of the main

25 Feb

How Cold Was It? Historical weather records

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The winter of 2013-2014 is not quite over as the forecast models continue to show cold air masses that will continue to move down from the north and impact Midwest and East Coast of the US during the week of 2-24-2014. Just how cold was January 2014? According to this source, there were 4406 cold

20 Feb

Mountain Waves & Airplane Turbulence

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Lenticular cloud formation (like photo above) are photo gems that we love to view. However, if you are in an airplane you probably want to avoid. These clouds can be found quite often in the mountain areas of Western US. They usually form when we have strong westerly winds aloft. The danger is in Rotor

10 Feb

Atmospheric Rivers

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Atmospheric rivers (AR) are long and narrow bands of highly-concentrated moisture in association with winter storms and occur throughout the middle latitudes near major oceans. Thus the US West Coast is subject to this. The amount of moisture can be extreme especially when the air is forced up the mountains along the West Coast. How

28 Jan

Weather Records

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January 6 and 7 of 2014 brought many record cold temperatures (F) and here is a very brief list: Chicago -16, Toledo -14, Cleveland -11, New York City +4, and Pittsburgh -9. Now (1-28 and 1-29) another arctic air mass is sweeping into the Southeast US and snow and ice storms will sweep across much

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