Bruce Sussman Portland Weather

Only The West Is Warm During Spring 2013

Bruce Sussman — Mon, 17 Jun 2013 08:48:25 +0000

I’ve been hearing about this all spring. “Wow, our weather has been really nice this year!”

Yep, it sure has. And these NOAA images show that living in the northwest was actually a warm and dry situation this spring. Along with much of New England.

On the top chart, the red is unusually warm. The blue is unusually cool. Most of the country is in blue.

On the bottom chart, brown is unusually dry.… Read more

Rare Willamette Valley Tornado Hits, Many Funnel Clouds Seen

Bruce Sussman — Fri, 14 Jun 2013 18:34:36 +0000

It’s rare–but wild weather happens in the northwest.

This picture shows a well formed funnel cloud about 15 miles due south of Oregon State University on the afternoon of Thursday June 13, 2013.

As far as we know, it never touched down. So that’s why we call it a funnel cloud. We’d call it a tornado if it went all the way to the ground. Which leads us to McMinnville, where a confirmed EF-1… Read more

Incredible Week Of Weather Photos For Oregon & Washington

Bruce Sussman — Sat, 08 Jun 2013 06:56:00 +0000

How about a giant question mark in the sky–created by some wispy clouds over Portland?

Yep, Amanda caught a picture of this one.

And besides Portland being unusually warm the first week of June 2013, it was also unusually interesting when it comes to the week in pictures. Here’s what I mean:

Darlisa caught the northern lights in this time lapse exposure from the Washington side of the Columbia River Gorge. That’s rare.… Read more

May 2013 In Portland: Headed Into The Record Books

Bruce Sussman — Thu, 30 May 2013 06:37:52 +0000

We did it.

Portland had so much rain during May 2013, we made it into the record books for the month.

As you can see, we tied 2010 for third wettest may on record at PDX, with records dating back to 1941.

But the way we did this is also incredible:

That’s right…more rain during a nine day stretch than the entire months of February & March–combined!

For more on Read more

Portland’s May Weather: The Driest Of Times, The Wettest Of Times

Bruce Sussman — Mon, 27 May 2013 02:50:27 +0000

Spending May 2013 in Portland, Oregon (and many other places in the northwest) was a wild weather ride!

The month started with skies like you see in this picture. Beautiful and bright from sunrise to sunset.

Portland weather spoiled us all: 14 straight days of unusually warm highs, as hot as 85 degrees, with an average high for that stretch of about 78 degrees. That’s what we’d expect in July!

During the first two… Read more

Oklahoma Tornado: From The Air & From Space

Bruce Sussman — Tue, 21 May 2013 22:23:57 +0000

The National Weather Service has upgraded the Moore, Oklahoma tornado’s strength to an EF-5 tornado, with wind speeds of 200-210mph.

Aerial pictures like this (tweeted by @WCL_Shawn) show the view from above today, May 21, 2013. Somewhere on the ground amid the rubble, investigators from the National Weather Service.

They spent today looking at the damage–but it goes beyond that. They can actually determine the windspeeds by comparing how strongly structures were built with what’s left of them… Read more

Developing:Deadly Oklahoma Tornado

Bruce Sussman — Tue, 21 May 2013 01:39:08 +0000

It’s heartbreaking.

Pictures like this AP photo of a woman carrying a child away from the devastation in Moore, Oklahoma on the afternoon of May 20, 2013.

Preliminary Tornado Strength: EF-4 with wind speeds up to 200mph.

Death Toll: Sure to climb as searches go through rubble

The most powerful types of tornadoes (EF-4 & EF-5) make us just 1% of the tornadoes in the United States each year. But they account for 67%… Read more

Ring Of Fire From Solar Eclipse, Down Under

Bruce Sussman — Fri, 10 May 2013 06:29:26 +0000

Friday morning May 10, 2013 was spectacular in some parts of Australia.

This is a picture of the so-called “Ring Of Fire” where the moon passing in front of the sun is not quite big enough to cover the entire sun as we see it.

I found this photo by Nicole Hollenbeck on one of my favorite sites, spaceweather.com.

And for fun, check ou the Realtime Eclipse Photo Gallery.

Updated: Spring, Summer 2013 Northwest Weather Outlook

Bruce Sussman — Sat, 04 May 2013 06:33:03 +0000

Ahhh, Spring.

A lot of sun time.

Blue sky above the KOIN Tower (shown here).

And warm weather most of the time.

Uh, most years, this would describe anywhere but the Pacific Northwest, including Portland and the Willamette Valley.

But so far, Spring 2013 has been unusually dry and warm. And that overall trend may take us right into a hot & dry northwest summer.

See the brown colors? Those are the places that… Read more

Oregon Summer Water, Streamflow, Reservoir Forecast

Bruce Sussman — Fri, 19 Apr 2013 04:35:38 +0000

Remember the water wars of summer’s past?

Where thousands of fish died in Klamath County and farmers and ranchers were angry because no one had enough water to go around?

Or how about the year Oregon’s Detroit Lake was so low that boat docks sat on dirt–instead of in the water?

I remember do live reports–from the lake bed around this dock!

Now, with a much drier than normal 3 1/2 month start… Read more