News, views and advertising of the Grand Coulee Dam Area
News, views and advertising of the Grand Coulee Dam Area
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Can you feel it? That seasonal change is coming — tree leaves are starting to turn color, temperatures are dropping a little. The official day for Autumn Equinox is Sept. 22 this year. Cool, crisp air and clear skies, if we don’t get any more wildfire smoke — fingers crossed! We’ve been blanketed again this season with much smoke and fine particulate matter. We’ve seen an active wildfire season and smoke has filtered into our region from considerable distances. Early in August, we got hit with...
Morgan Spurlock, a documentary filmmaker, went on a 30-day McDonald’s fast-food diet and he ended up with health problems. He documented his feast in his film “Super-Size Me.” When we satisfy our daily news diet, it can be analogous to fast food. Add some social media and a boatload of websites that many feed themselves and we have an even bigger diet of “news.” It all boils down to our personal choice and acceptance. We all live in a self-created bubble of some sort. We surround ourselves with...
In past columns I’ve talked about the El Niño Southern Oscillation (ENSO), or as some call it, the Southern Oscillation. Let me briefly review what this thing does. There are two ocean temperature and wind actions that occur down along the Tropical Pacific Equator that can, and do, affect global climate. These fluctuating ocean wind and temperature events also play a role in our winters here in the Pacific and Inland Northwest. One is referred to as El Niño (the child, Spanish) and the oth...
Last week I got an email with a photo showing a cloud that had erupted into a rainbow of color. There is a name for what happened: it’s called cloud iridescence or irisation. Some call it cloud rainbows. What happens is individual ice crystals or water droplets in the cloud reflect, refract and disperse incoming sunlight. It’s like what happens when a rainbow develops. A rainbow is caused by reflection, refraction and dispersion of light in water droplets, causing a spectrum of light to app...
Let’s start off with some facts about our oceans: The Earth’s oceans cover 71 percent of its surface and contain 97 percent of the Earth’s water. Less than 1 percent of the Earth’s water is fresh water, while 2-3 percent is contained in glaciers and ice caps. The oceans contain 99 percent of the living space on the planet. Digest those numbers as we take a look at some ocean research and ocean-research tools being used today that are helping us understand global weather and the changes now occ...
In 1878, John Wesley Powell, solider, geologist, explore and professor, placed an imaginary longitudinal line on a map based on his exploration observations. That line, he explained, represented the separation of the dry and arid west and the humid east of the United States. That line goes through all of North America and is the 100th Meridian. Powell was best known for his exploration of the Grand Canyon as well as other parts of the great west. Powell, who explored many areas of the west,...
Yep, I’ve heard the comments: “When will it warm up; when will it stop raining?” It will, really. This spring seems to be similar to last year’s in some ways — cool and damp. Given where we live, let’s be thankful for the rain, certainly for the snowpack too. To our north, northeast and northwest the Snow Water Equivalent (SWE) numbers are looking good for our region. Snow Water Equivalent means the amount of water contained within the snowpack. As of mid-April, Moses Mountain had 51 inches o...
Winter months are great for offering up some reading time. We all find that comfortable, well-lit spot, a drink (your choice) and a great book — maybe some great music, too. My personal interests are wide and varied when it comes to books and reading, though weather and weather events are always subjects I like to read about. Given that we still have some winter left, I want to share with you some titles and a little synopsis of some books about weather I’ve read, may be reading or have wai...
With the passage of Winter Solstice, we will start gaining more daylight. It’s not that noticeable; it’s measured initially in about one minute each day, and that’s at sunset. When we arrive at mid-January, we begin to see good gain in daylight on both ends — sunrise and sunset. Example: Dec. 22, 2017 — sunrise at 7:43 a.m., sunset at 4:06 p.m.; Jan. 15, 2018 — sunrise at 7:41 a.m., sunset at 4:31 p.m. Think of all the things you can get done outside with all the extra light. (Insert smi...
Early November teased us a little bit with measurable snowfall that apparently has stalled. Not to worry, ski fans and snow junkies, it will snow again. I spent some time looking at what winter may look like here in the Coulee. The discussions about La Niña, a recurring event that has a direct result on global weather, are stating some weaknesses, with “only a 65-75 percent chance that it will continue at least through the winter. Similar to last winter, the event is predicted to be re...
Air quality alerts are common in many regions of the world. The United States experiences air quality alerts regularly too. The causes are wide ranging and many are seasonal in nature. Of concern in our region is particle pollution. During the summer months, here in the west and northwest, air-quality culprits are primarily wildfires. During the winter months, in some areas, it’s home wood burning coupled with temperature inversions. As an example, this past Aug. 6, much of the western United S...
I’ve licked my finger, held it up to the air; now I can tell you what winter will bring. If only it were that simple! So, let me share what is being stated by our federal agencies that work in the arena of weather prediction. First, let’s take a look at what is going on in the Tropical Pacific Ocean — down there where La Niña and El Niño are found. That area, down there in the Tropical Pacific Ocean, is called the ENSO — El Niño Southern Oscillation. What’s happening currently is that sea surface temperatures are dropping and there is a l...
It’s looking like we may be starting a long dance with drought — maybe. It’s still a bit too early to call it a long-term drought. As we enter into fall and then early winter we should have a better understanding. Looking at the North America Drought Monitor, it shows our region currently in “abnormally dry conditions.” Something we all can attest to, I’d say. Looking to our east, Montana and the Dakotas are in much drier conditions than we are now experiencing. Montana is seeing well over a half million acres involved in wildland fires. Had...
With the impending solar eclipse very close, it's nice to know the science of what is happening; humanity doesn't react to the old mythologies that surrounded past solar or lunar eclipse events. The scientific explanation of what we see has brought us beyond the myths. Many cultures have explained eclipses - solar or lunar - as animals consuming either the sun or the moon, or that demons are the culprits. The Viking sky wolves are a favorite of mine. My Viking ancestors saw a pair of wolves in t...
You can almost hear the ground gasping with a slow, agonizing, parched voice, pleading for some water. A bit dramatic, I guess. Certainly, it has been dry around and in the Coulee. There were some recent isolated showers here and there, nothing to have any real effect. My home weather station hasn’t recorded any precipitation for 59 days as of this writing. Feast or famine, they say. For the month of July, I’ve measured two days exceeding the 100˚F mark — on the 6th, at 101.7˚F, and on the 7th, with 103.8˚. The low for the month was on the 1...
The Washington State Governor's Advisory Council on Historic Preservation met in Coulee Dam Town Hall June 27 to address eight nominations to either the Washington Heritage Register or the National Register of Historic Places. The seven-member council generally meets three times annually at various locations across the state. Their work is to review and approve selected nominations to either the Washington Heritage Register or the National Register of Historic Places, or both. Last year, the... Full story
Recently, I came across an interesting story about spies, kidnappings and winter storms. It was all happening during our war for independence from the British more than two hundred years ago. The characters are many, some British, some Colonists and many Loyalists of one side or the other. The protagonist, at least for me, was the weather. In February 1780, a British general and a British spy living in the colonies planned and attempted to capture General George Washington. Washington, at the time, was living in Morristown, New Jersey. The... Full story
Reading the recent piece about the circus visit, I found a statement to be two-thirds correct. “Jungle cats” is a misleading title for the three big cats that are part of the circus. Lions, specifically African lions, are not jungle dwellers, unlike the tigers. Now, there is an exception. The Asiatic lion, a sub-species of lion, is found primarily in India. It does dwell in a jungle-like environment. When I visited the big cats before the circus shows began, I was not able to ask the lion if he was of Asiatic or African descent. Given the tsu... Full story
Really, do trees migrate? The answer is a yes. A little clarification here, though; trees don’t actually move themselves. What does occur: tree populations can shift over time. A recent study confirms that, over the past three decades, trees in the eastern United States are shifting their population centers west and north. Several tree species common in the east, such as white oak, sugar maples, and American hollies, have shifted their population center west since 1980. The study also shows that more than half of the species studied also m... Full story
We certainly aren’t seeing the amount of rainfall that the Olympic Peninsula receives with an annual average of 140 inches a year. Yet, we have been wet here in our region of the state. With all that rain and melt-off, things do happen — flooding, mudslides, roads washed out and crop planting delays. The folks at the National Weather Service office in Spokane stated this: “A combination of abundant late winter snow, heavy rain from several wet Pacific storms, and near-seasonal tempe... Full story
Rain! We’ve had a decent amount of it in the past year. I measured a total of 15.21 inches of precipitation at my home weather station in 2016. Rain is just one of many forms of precipitation. It’s part of the water cycle, more properly the Hydrologic Cycle. Precipitation is water that is released from clouds in the form of rain, freezing rain, sleet, snow, or hail. It’s the main connection in the hydrologic cycle that provides for the delivery of atmospheric water to this little planet we live on, Earth. Most precipitation around the plane... Full story
Planet Earth, our little satellite that we all call home, is composed of several broad-ranging geographic regions. Let’s add some varying climate types to those regions. Now we see how the complexities of these broad geographic regions grow. At one time, I lived and worked in the Chihuahuan Desert, a North American desert that spans two nations and is considered to be part of the temperate zone. It was warm in the summer and we had snow in the winter — just like here in the Grand Coulee. The Grand Coulee, regionally, is part of the Col... Full story
Our conversations seem to be revolving around the weather. It’s understandable, it’s been cold and wet; lots of snow on the ground, and some of our friends have been south or to Mexico and are bragging. We also have a general tendency to not like cold. There are some exceptions; I’m one, I prefer cool weather, not hot. The curse of a lot of folks this time of year is the snow. It builds up, creates a mess that requires removal and/or piling, and can be a pain, literally, to walk and drive on. Snow, an interesting word. I did a little research a... Full story
Let’s start out with a quick look back at 2016 weather, shall we? What really stands out for me in 2016 was the amount of precipitation we received. Our area averages 10.55 inches annually. Well, that changed and will likely change the overall average as well. We had three months with really good precipitation — January: 2.15 inches as measured by my personal weather station (1.90 inches as measured by the official weather station at the Bureau of Reclamation), March: 2.70 inches (1.82) and October: 3.60 inches (3.98). Our total pre... Full story
There was a big change in mean temperature for the month of November, not only here but statewide. Here at the home weather station I recorded a November mean of 44.7˚F. The all-time mean temperature for November is 37.5˚, giving us a +7.2˚ difference. Those extra warm days gave us time to keep working on those fall tasks. Here are the other readings for this past month. Our high temperature was 63.1˚ (all-time high 69˚) on Nov. 3. Our low was 27.9˚ (all-time low -10˚) on Nov. 29. We were up on precipitation with a reading of 1.56 inches (mean... Full story