Weatherman Whine

A major car company is making fun of how wrong us weathermen are, in their latest ad campaign. Boo hoo.

New computers to predict weather

Thanks to everyone who donated to buy us some new nerdy computers with weird chutes that jut off them to keep them cold.



Also, you can donate to the scholarship fund

Pacific Decadal Oscillation

It ain't about global warming and it ain't about global cooling. It's all about the PDO, baby.

Forecast

Saturday is going to be "warm" (by 2011 standards) and sunny. Sunday, it's back to your regularly scheduled program.

Kids, don't read this

There are clouds shaped like tits.

Vocab Time!

"Temperature lapse rate" - the difference in temperature between the surface and higher altitudes.

Large lapse rates cause convection (think lava lamps and ... um... cooking oatmeal), which makes for some trippy clouds.

Worst Spring, EVER

La Niña Is Dead

Long Live La Niña. Officially the weather phenomenon itself is ending, but we'll still see colder than average temps this spring.

Cliff Explains the UW budget crisis (no TLDR)

I was going to ignore or mock this post, but after reading it, I realized it's actually one of Cliff's best "off topic" posts ever. Please take the time to read UW Admissions and the Budget Cuts. He explains the UW budget crisis, and dispels some myths propagated by last week's Seattle Times cover story.

http://cliffmass.blogspot.com/2011/04/uw-admissions-and-budget-cuts.html

Upside down rainbow (in which Cliff makes a funny)

If you saw an upside down rainbow, it wasn't just because you were laying on the ground in fetal position crying about the weather. It was real, and caused by the same phenomenon that creates halos (refraction of light in ice crystals).

Also: "Current research has not found any evidence for a pot of gold at the end of this rainbow. Apparently, it is too high for leprechauns to deal with."

Why it was cold yesterday

Some parts of the region got snow yesterday due to the convergence zone*. Precipitation causes evaporation that cools the air. This only lasts minutes, but then melting snow robs the air of energy which causes even more cooling. Yesterday, that was enough to drop the snow level down to the surface in some places.

* NW wind becomes split by the Olympics, then "converges" over the Sound, creating updrafts. Those updrafts cause convection and then precipitation.

Freaky Friday: CA and WA to exchange weather patterns

On Friday, California will get our wet weather and we'll get their dry weather. Just for one day.

Last week I was in Monterey, California attending the Cyclone Workshop. Jeally?

Radiation

Or the lack thereof. Nothing to report here. Except radioactivity in Boise rainwater was particularly high.

WHY?

Quit it

It's cold and wet, but quit yer bitchin. Sunday should be nice.