Forecasting Kitsap

Hurricane Force Winds in Oregon and a Snowy Scene in Florida

January 11th, 2010 by Matthew Leach

I’m really not sure what 100 MPH wind FEELS like, but I saw this video on a weather forum produced by Steve Pierce of the Oregon AMS (American Meteorological Society) that illustrates at least what 100 MPH wind LOOKS like on January 7th, 2010.

Professor Cliff Mass describes the unusual gusty Columbia Rover Gorge Winds like this: “The wind action of the past few days has been caused by a large pressure difference across the Cascades, a difference that has some connection with the frigid, cold air in the eastern half of the U.S.”

So at least the PNW made SOME weather headlines this month in relation to severe weather, but we still haven’t had a whole lot of action in these parts. Heck, look at this recent picture from central Florida!

How embarassing…Seattle has yet to experience a scene like that this winter!

And look at this incredible temperature profile in the southeastern portion of the U.S. at about 10:53 am Saturday morning EST:

20 degrees in Dallas! 29 in Brownsville! 35 in Tampa! 19 in Atlanta! 45 in Miami! All taking place an hour before noon time. This is some wicked cold, and the PNW has been (thankfully?) robbed from not just the worst of it but from ANY of it. We’ve been stuck under the influence of a nasty S/SE flow which has been bringing copious amounts of rain and much above normal temperatures since the beginning of this month.

This week looks like a classic El Nino gloom fest, but there are definite signs of a dramatic shift to our weather pattern later this month…and I’m talkin’ consistency, folks. Historically, late Jan/early Feb is the best time to receive historic cold and/or snow around here. We’ll see.

For now, stay dry and hold your breath! We won’t be coming up for air until maybe later this week.

Matthew Leach

Forecasting Kitsap

Questions? Comments? E-mail me at: forecastingkitsap@live.com

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This entry was posted on Monday, January 11th, 2010 at 10:32 am by Matthew Leach and is filed under Storms/Active Weather, This Blog. You can follow any responses to this entry through the RSS 2.0 feed. Both comments and pings are currently closed.