Wednesday, January 29, 2014

Cliff Predicts a Hawks Win

Just kidding, but he does predict the weather for Superbowl Sunday. The Super Bowl will have super boring weather.  Weather that will make the Seahawks feel right at home. GO HAWKS!

Wednesday, January 1, 2014

"Week" in review: fracking, droughts, coldness, Kelvin-Helmholtz Instability clouds

Dec 23: Is natural gas fracking fracking up the ozone? Please donate to this UW researcher so she can investigate.

Dec 25: There's only 25-50% of the average snowfall in the mountains this year, due to lower-than-predicted precipitation.

Dec 27: Snow makes it cold, by reflecting sunlight away and keeping the earth's warmth underground.

Dec 29: Today we got beautiful breaking wave clouds (aptly named "Kelvin-Helmholtz Instability clouds"). They're caused by vertical wind shear: just the precise amount change in horizontal winds, relatively quickly in the vertical.

Forecasts are only accurate 7-9 days out

Weather forecasts are only accurate for about 7-9 days out. "Weather" outfits giving you longer-range predictions are nothing more than snake-oil salesmen, and their cloud icons look like fish.