It was a beautiful fall day here in Seattle (63° F / 17°C), with a blue sky and sun this afternoon.
Thursday/ gold 🍂
Wednesday/ landfall 🌀
Landfall was to the south of Tampa and St. Petersburg, sparing those areas a large storm surge out of Tampa Bay.
That is not to say there is not a lot of water there. Some areas around St. Petersburg received more than 16″ of rain in the last 24 hours. 😱
Doppler radar data indicates that the eye of #Hurricane #Milton has made landfall near Siesta Key in Sarasota County on the west coast of Florida.
Tuesday/ on hurricane Milton watch 🌀
Tensions are running high in Florida. Emergencies have been declared, with evacuation orders, in dozens of Florida counties.
There are reports of clogged highways and interstates, and many gas stations running out of gas, as drivers make their way out of the storm’s path.
Jason Samenow of the Washington Post explains below why it matters exactly where near Tampa, the hurricane makes landfall (projected to be very late on Wednesday night, or early Thursday morning).
Monday/ here comes Milton 🌀
Milton was a Category 5 hurricane in the Gulf of Mexico late Monday Eastern time.
Right now the models predict that it will make landfall near Saint Petersburg and Tampa, Florida, on Wednesday night.
Milton is the 13th named storm to form in the Atlantic in 2024. In late May, the National Oceanic and Atmospheric Administration predicted that there would be 17 to 25 named storms this year, an above-normal amount. This season follows an overly active year, with 20 named storms — including an early storm later given the official name of “Unnamed.” It was the eighth year in a row to surpass the average of 14 named storms. Only one hurricane, Idalia, made landfall in the United States. Typically, the El Niño pattern that was in force last season would have suppressed hurricanes and reduced the number of storms in a season. But in 2023, the warm ocean temperatures in the Atlantic blunted El Niño’s usual effect of thwarting storms.
[Map by the New York Times]
Thursday/ Helene is here 🌀
Hurricane Helene is one of the biggest storms on record to strike the Gulf Coast. A few hours before making landfall, Helene had winds of at least tropical storm force, a sustained 39 mph or greater, across some 420 miles.
According to an analysis by Colorado State University hurricane scientist Phil Klotzbach, Helene is larger than all but two gulf storms since 1988: Opal, a Category 3 storm that made landfall on the Florida Panhandle in October 1995, and Irma, a Category 4 storm that struck South Florida in September 2017.
When a storm is so large, it means more people are exposed to its hazards, which extend hundreds of miles away from the point of landfall.
– From reporting by Scott Dance, Simon Ducroquet and John Muyskens in The Washington Post
Monday/ the last week of summer 🌞
The black-eyed Susans, the pretty asters (picture below), and some sunflowers here in my neighborhood are the last of this summer’s flowers.
It was a very pleasant 70°F (21 °C) today, with a blue sky and sun this afternoon.
Wednesday/ it’s still very hot in Phoenix🔥
We’re going to warm up to 88°F (31°C) tomorrow here in Seattle: warm for late summer.
Our summer temperatures are nothing compared to a place such as Phoenix, Arizona, of course.
At 11 a.m. local time this morning, temperatures in Phoenix hit 100° F (38°C) for the 100th day in a row. The longest previous 100-degree streak was 76 days in 1993.
Today’s high in Phoenix was 108°F (42°C). Night-time temperatures do not bring much relief. The low last night was 88°F (31°C).
Tuesday/ wave clouds 🌊
WHIDBEY ISLAND STATION, Wash. — Residents of and near Whidbey Island witnessed a weather phenomenon on Tuesday as “wave clouds” lined the horizon.
Kelvin-Helmholtz clouds or fluctus clouds, as the formations are named, are very rare over Washington, according to KING 5 Chief Meteorologist Mike Everett.
The clouds look like literal waves in the sky, a series of rounded crests that are worthy of a double-take.
Often referred to as “wave clouds,” the clouds signal a difference in wind speed and density between two layers.
– Reported by Olivia Sullivan for king5.com
[Photo courtesy of Cathy O’Keefe, posted on king5.com]
Friday/ rain ☔
Happy Friday.
There was steady rain here in the city today (about 0.5″), and there will be more this weekend.
It was all of 58°F (14°C) as I headed out for a quick walk after dinner.
Tuesday/ fall-ish weather 🌦
A little bit of rain, a little sun, clouds— that seems to be the weather pattern for the week. A high of 71 °F (22 °C) today.
It’s the last hurrah for my deck furniture before I put it away in the garage and the basement.
Saturday/ thunder and lightning 🌩
A large thunderstorm with rain and lightning is passing over the Seattle metro area tonight.
NOAA’s GOES-18 (launched Mar 1, 2022) is the third satellite in the Geostationary Operational Environmental Satellites (GOES) – R Series, the Western Hemisphere’s most sophisticated weather-observing and environmental-monitoring system.
The GOES-R Series provides advanced imagery and atmospheric measurements, real-time mapping of lightning activity, and monitoring of space weather.
[Picture from noaa.gov]
Thursday/ hazy skies 😟
Here is tonight’s sunset, seen from Capitol Hill’s 14th Avenue at Thomas Street.
That’s a layer of smoke out there, from the wildfires east of the Cascades, and also from those burning in Oregon and California.
Friday/ warm weather 🌅
Happy Friday.
The Blue Angels are in town for Seafair, and the warm weather is back for the next several days.
It was 88°F (31°C) today.
Monday/ a little bit of rain ☔
This is the driest day on the calendar for our region*— but there was a little bit of steady rain around the city this morning.
*When looking at daily averages for 79 years of records at the Seattle-Tacoma airport weather station.
And hey! look at the neon-powder blue paint lines that the city put on for pickleball.
[Thanks for Steve K. for the photo]
Tuesday/ cooler weather prevails 🌥️
We had 18 consecutive days above 80°F (26°C) in the city by Sunday— a record number of consecutive days.
The run ended on Monday, which brought a high of only 68°F (20°C).
If I have it right, these are Lily Muscadet or Lily Oriental Muscadet, a cross between a Korean and a Japanese lily.
Saturday/ blue skies 🏙
It was another beautiful blue sky day here in the city— 85°F (29 °C).
That’s the Portage Bay body of water in the foreground.
Vessels have the Montlake Cut to get to Lake Washington (visible at left, middle of the picture).
Downtown Bellevue is on the east side of Lake Washington, and those are the Cascades mountain range in the distance.
Friday/ cheers 🍻
Happy Friday.
The amigos met at Chuck’s Hop Shop in Central District for a beer and a bite.
The streak of warmer-than-usual-but-not-unbearable weather here in the city will continue through the weekend— 83°F (28°C) today and up to 88°F (31°C) tomorrow.
Monday/ sunny and dry ☀️
There was cloud cover this morning, but it was gone by late morning.
Today was the 12th day in a row with a high 80°+ (27°C+) recorded at Sea-Tac.
(The record is 15 days in a row, and it will be broken).
There has also been no rain in July, and we have a real shot at reaching the end of July with no rain at all.
Normally, July ends with about 0.67″ of recorded rain.
What has been the driest July on record? I wondered.
Here is what the Office of the Washington State Climatologist says about July 1960:
‘All of the climate divisions of the state were exceedingly dry in July 1960 (ranging from 0.01” in the Puget Sound Lowlands to 0.05” in the East Slopes Cascades region).
Some stunningly low amounts of precipitation occurred in spots that normally get a fair amount of rain.
For example, in the coastal region of WA, Forks checked in with only 0.04” and Hoquiam got completely shut out with 0.00”.
The 1981-2010 climate normal for Forks and Hoquiam in July is 2.47 and 1.14”, respectively’.
Tuesday/ a crescent moon🌙
We had 97°F (36°C) here in the city of Seattle today, record for this day on the calendar.
The sunny weather and clear skies will persist, but the high should come down by some 10°F (5.5°C) tomorrow.
He says: ‘Thanks to a great heads-up from @NWSSeattle Sunday, I was able to get the crescent moon and Mercury in a frame looking west in Idaho’.
Sunday ☀️
The weather forecast now says the heat here in the city will top out on Tuesday at 95°F (35°C).
I like to take a picture or two of my hydrangea’s bloom every summer before the hot weather scorches the little flowers.
In South Africa, hydrangeas are typically in full bloom in December.
That’s why we call them ‘Krismisrose’ in Afrikaans, which translates to ‘Christmas roses’.