SPRING WEB CAMS Clouds, sun and snow!

Spring is a transition season from winter to summer. Sometimes it looks and feels like winter; at other times it seems more like summer; and then there are days like today when we have both!

The web camera from the Oregon Department of Forestry shows a good example of a typical northwest scene: some clouds and a few patches of blue. At 3pm it was 52 in Medford.

Meanwhile to the north in the Central Oregon Cascades we had a little taste of winter. If you look closely at the Oregon Department of Transportation web camera you can make out some flakes. Look at the side of the road, you can see some white spots, those are flakes close to the camera. The information on the ODOT camera shows the temperature right at freezing.


And finally it looked more like summer in the San Juan Islands. The web camera from Islandcam.com shows the nice western Washington scene and popular boating destination Friday Harbor where at 3pm it was 61.


Let’s hope the northwest looks more like the skies over Friday Harbor come this weekend. I know a lot of boaters are hoping so with opening day of boating season and the Windermere Cup at the University of Washington Saturday. Think sun!

CONTRAILS A sign of change

It seems our spring time weather changes as fast as the jet planes flying overhead. In fact, we can look to the contrails produced by those jets as a signal for coming changes in our weather.

First it is important to understand what exactly contrails are. They form when water vapor is emitted as a byproduct from a jet engine. The water vapor condenses in the cold air and forms a cloud (made of ice crystals). Most contrails form in the upper levels of the atmosphere, above about 25,000 feet (more than 10,000 feet higher than Mt. Rainer).

If the atmosphere is dry then the cloud will dissipate quickly, or a contrail will not form at all. If there is a lot of moisture in the atmosphere then the contrail will last much longer. So the longer it lasts, the higher the humidity.

Increasing moisture in the upper levels of the atmosphere is usually a sign of an incoming weather system. I took these pictures during the early afternoon, notice the blue skies. By dinner time the skies were totally white and the front was just offshore with rain falling at the coast.



Another sign we have increasing moisture in the upper levels is when we see a halo or ring around the sun. In this case you can make out a faint rainbow at the base of the ring with contrails below.

TUESDAY SUNSET

On my dinner break I took couple sunset pictures. It was sure nice to see the sun after some areas in western Washington had snow falling this morning!

The sun set tonight at 7:58 pm and despite some snow this morning it is another sign we are still marching toward summer. When you are watching the sunset, remember to turn around. There were some soft purple colors in the eastern sky tonight – the colors were faint so they were hard to make out on my reliable but aging camera but I was able to capture a little pink from the clouds directly overhead.


It looks like we will finally be getting back to normal this week and maybe even warmer than average by this weekend and into the first part of next week with more sunsets to come!

EASTER SUNDAY The Easter bunny was out and so were the umbrellas.

Walking home from the store early this afternoon I saw a warming sight on a soggy day. Hundreds of people were gathering in Kirkland for the traditional Easter Egg Hunt despite the cloudy and wet conditions. I snapped these pictures with my camera phone.



Western Washington had a very wet day with more than two inches of rain out at the coast and a record breaking day at Sea-Tac. The airport had .81” and that was good enough to break the old record of .61” set in 1950. Hoquiam and Olympia also had record breaking days.

We will still have some showers on Monday (maybe a few snowflakes) with a chance for afternoon thunderstorms. Tuesday we will also have some showers and maybe a little wet snow, but after that we are looking pretty good. If the forecast holds it could be sunny and warm by next weekend.

SUNBREAKS Just in time...

Friday is starting out cloudy, but at least we did see some blue skies around western Washington on Thursday.
On my way to the gym, I stopped to capture some blue and pink with my camera phone. It's nice to see some colorful flora around town (even if most of it is potted).



At the end of the day we had a nice mix of clouds and sunshine. The good thing about having some clouds at sunset is that it gives the sun's beams something to play with. I took the following pictures from my neighbor Jackson's deck.

Take a look at how the rays are shining through the peaks of the Olympics.



If the wind picks up today, I'm hoping to get some spring shots from the water. Fingers crossed.

WHITE ON BLUE … a great spring combination

Spring has arrived. We are seeing the warm side of spring across the northwest and plenty of blue skies. Temperatures are back in the 60s and 70s for most areas and the mountains are looking great! Take a look at the web camera from the Sunriver Lodge from about 3:30 Monday afternoon. That white spot on the horizon is one snow covered Mt. Bachelor and in my opinion one of the best spots to spend a spring day.



About a 20 to 30 minute drive from Sunriver or Bend will get you there. You can see some late afternoon riders at the base of the Pine Marten Express lift from the Mt. Bachelor web camera at the West Village Lodge. At the time of this picture the Mt. Bachelor website said it was 54 degrees at the base and 43 at the top of the lift. Meanwhile it was 40 at the summit.


You can just make out the summit at the very top of the picture. When I lived in Bend several years ago you could ride the summit right up to the weekend before the Fourth of July. Even if it was just a narrow strip of snow leading up to the Sunrise chair at the base. These days you can still ride some lifts through mid May.

This is a great spot to spend a spring day. My advice: Go up early before the snow gets sticky and have some Buffett on the ipod.

Sunday Sunsets

Finally!!Some sunshine and warm temperatures for the Northwest. Highs were in the 60s and even 70s for many spots across the region.

The KING 5 Bellevue tower camera looks across Lake Washington and at the city of Seattle with the Olympics in the distance. We did get a little bit of color at sun down after a great day. Phantom Lake Elementary in Bellevue had a high of 73.
One of my favorite web cameras comes from the US Forest Service near the Columbia River Gorge. It looks from the Washington side of the Columbia River over at The Dalles with Mount Hood on the horizon and some purple in the sky. The high at The Dalles was 71 today.

We only have a couple more days to catch some color in the evening sky. The ridge of high pressure is already on the move east and when it goes we will be back to a more wet and cool weather pattern. We still might get some good sunsets between weather systems but it will be cold enough to keep most people inside so they will most likely be missed.

GOODBYE WINTER! It was... while it lasted

Hopefully we have said goodbye to winter for the last time. It looks likely now that we face what could be our first 70 degree day of 2009. Tomorrow or Monday we should see temperatures in the mid to upper 60s and maybe even 70 in Seattle. Maybe. Just two days ago snow flakes were flying around western Washington.



This past winter was a lot of things to a lot of people. For those who were adversely affected by the snow, wind or flooding, the winter of 2008-2009 is one they would probably like to forget. For those of us who depend on the weather to make a living, it was busy!

Now that it seems we are really heading into spring, I would like to share some of my favorite pictures from this past season. These pictures are from Marina Park in Kirkland. I took them the Sunday night before Christmas. It also happened to be the first day of winter.

Some of my favorite photo outings are after work and late at night. Unfortunately, when the weather beckons me to pull my camera and tripod outside late at night it usually involves snow or ice.
Now I’m looking forward to one of my favorite seasons: sunset season.