A Clear Night...

OK... I know I am jinxing it... but... several things going on tonight...

1. Clear skies….

2. Waxing Crescent Moon (minimal light pollution)

3. KP level has been teasing us with high numbers today... (possible Northern Lights)

4. 3 different "minor" meteor showers are active right now: 

February Epsilon Virginids

Alpha Centaurids

Alpha Coronae Borealids

A clear night in the Pacific NorthWet is something to celebrate. My Canon HD night cam will be running starting at 6:30pm at Night Cam Link

USS Nimitz

A beautiful day for the Nimitz to cruise by....

Edit.... And then shortly after the Nimitz passed, I found this image that was taken by Cam 1 at the same time the Nimitz was going by.... 

Sunrise - January 30th

This is a time lapse of this morning’s sunrise.  If you look closely, you can see some upper level cirrocumulus (mackerel sky / herringbone clouds).  Best viewed in HD here:  Sunrise Time Lapse

Tides and Barometer

A while ago I wrote a bit about the barometric pressure impact on the actual tides.  Yesterday, Mrs. SkunkBayWeather and I took a walk on the beach with the dogs.  We started walking with about a 7ft. predicted tide level.  When we got on the beach I couldn’t believe how low the tide was.  We had lots of sandy beach, rather than having to worry about climbing over and around downed trees and walking in the water.  There are two things going on here.  One, the strong north wind storms we had a while ago carved away the sand right up to the edge of the banks.  There are places with a 2 ft. drop.  All that sand is spread evenly out onto the beach, which in turn raises the level of the beach relative to the water.  We have a way more sandy beach now.  But there is another reason.  Yesterday the barometer was the highest so far this year at 30.65” / 1038mb.  This lowered the tide level by 10”.  This helped contribute to the beautiful long, sandy beach.

During the big North winds we had recently, the barometer bottomed out at 29.07” / 984mb (the lowest of the year).  This raised the sea level 11” above the prediction.  Tides are predicted at the average barometric pressure of 29.91” or 1013mb.  This brings up a pretty amazing fact.  Between these two events the actual swing (low to high) from prediction caused by atmospheric pressure is 21”.  This is just a good reminder that the predicted tide levels are just that.  They are predicted on an average barometric pressure.  Actual tides fluctuate tremendously due to the wide swing in atmospheric pressure.

A picture tells the story….  Normally anything above 7.5’ and we are climbing over downed trees or walking in the water.  Here is a picture taken this morning on a 7.1’ tide and a 30.57” / 1035mb barometer.  This lowered the tide from prediction by 9"….  No climbing over trees this morning….

I provide this adjustment number on my site as shown here:

There is also a link to a conversion chart I put together.  Here is the chart:

A Meteor and Mt. Baker

Looks like we had an early arrival from the Alpha Coronae Borealids meteor shower last night. The clouds parted at just the right time..... 

And a very bright Mt. Baker showed up before sunset yesterday....

Eagle Photobomb

Beautiful day for an eagle photobomb.... 

Bright Fireball Friday Morning

I just came across this image from Friday morning.  January 20th was the Gamma Ursae Minorids meteor shower.

Strange Lights This Morning

There were some very strange lights this morning up by Coupeville.  Anybody have any thoughts?

Mt. Baker Under Lenticular

Mt. Baker under a Lenticular cloud.... and a tug...

How Many Tons Of Rain Fell....

Scott Sistek KOMO and I had a little fun with this back around Thanksgiving. I also posted portions of this on Facebook. Today his blog goes into a little detail…. All good fun!

FWIW, during this past storm, my front yard gained 118,456 pounds.... :)

Click Here For His Blog

Recap Of A Stormy Day.... January 18th....

A little recap of today.....

Winds:  
We had the highest winds just before and after midnight.  High gusts of 41mph.  Steady 25mph+ gusts through most of the day....  I saw one power hit.

Rain:
At the time of this "typing"...  We have had 1.33" in the last 28 hours....  Yup... It's squishy out there...

Tides and Barometer:
The barometer bottomed out at 29.23" or 990mb.  The predicted high tide for Hansville was 11.14'.  The low barometer added 9" inches to that total.  Plus, with the abundance of rain runoff and the wind, the actual tide was "probably" at 12 feet or a bit more.  There was some pretty hefty spray going over the bulkheads in the Skunk Bay area when the wind switched to the SE.  Here is a video taken from the Point No Point park....  It got pretty close, but I have seen it worse.  Most of the logs on our beaches are now rearranged...  If anybody sees my favorite "sitting log" let me know....  I want it back... :) 

    
This added to the beach erosion.  We now have about a 2 foot drop at the bottom of our beach access.

Rainbows:
There was an abundance of rainbows whenever the buckets of water stopped dropping out of the sky...  I put together a 3 cam time lapse of them.  Best viewed in HD here: Panorama Time Lapse.
 

Coastal Flood Advisory

We were expecting this... The NWS has just issued a Coastal Flood Advisory.... Due to the low barometer, the tide will be at least 9" higher than predicted... The incredible amount of rain we have had overnight contributes to this fluctuation at well. High tide in Hansville is at 9:13am on a predicted level of 11.14'. We could see 12' tides this morning....

..COASTAL FLOOD ADVISORY IN EFFECT UNTIL NOON PST TODAY...

THE NATIONAL WEATHER SERVICE IN SEATTLE HAS ISSUED A COASTAL FLOOD ADVISORY...WHICH IS IN EFFECT UNTIL NOON PST TODAY.

* COASTAL FLOODING...MINOR FLOODING IS POSSIBLE ALONG THE SHORELINES DURING THE MORNING HIGH TIDE WEDNESDAY.

* SOME AFFECTED LOCATIONS...ALL OF PUGET SOUND FROM TACOMA AND SEATTLE NORTH TO THE ADMIRALTY INLET AREA WILL HAVE UNUSUALLY HIGH TIDES. SHORELINES ALONG HOOD CANAL WILL ALSO BE AFFECTED.

* TIMING...THE MORNING HIGH TIDE WEDNESDAY IS AROUND 9 TO 10 AM. WATER WILL BE UNUSUALLY HIGH FOR AN HOUR OR SO EACH SIDE OF HIGH TIDE.

* TIDE INFO...DEEP LOW PRESSURE OVER THE AREA WILL PRODUCE TIDES HIGHER THAN THE TIDE TABLES. CURRENT ANOMALIES ARE ABOUT 1.5 FEET ABOVE PREDICTIONS. THE ANOMALIES AROUND THE TIME OF HIGH TIDE WILL BE 1.5 TO 2.0 FEET ABOVE PREDICTIONS.

* IMPACTS...FLOODING DUE TO MINOR TIDAL OVERFLOW. LOW LYING AREAS NEXT TO THE WATER COULD GET A FEW INCHES OF TIDAL OVERFLOW THIS MORNING. THIS INCLUDES SOME ROADS AND PARKING LOTS.

PRECAUTIONARY/PREPAREDNESS ACTIONS...

A COASTAL FLOOD ADVISORY INDICATES THAT WINDS AND WAVES AT HIGH TIDE COULD COMBINE TO GENERATE FLOODING OF LOW AREAS ALONG THE SHORELINE.

Rain, Winds and Tides

The NWS just updated their discussion with information from the 3:00 model run.  There is some interesting stuff in it.....  Especially good news for Pluviophiles... (Rain Lovers)  We are settling into about 24 hours of an "Atmospheric River" that is being fed with moisture from just north of Hawaii...  Rainfall amounts will be impressive.  This afternoon was the appetizer....  Hourly rainfall rates have been running about .25 to .5 inches per hour off the coast.  One to two inches of rain between now and tomorrow afternoon here is not out of the question...  But wait...  There's more....  The wind has been screaming all around us.  There has not been a Port Townsend ferry run today.  All runs have been cancelled due to high winds...  Yet we have not been affected.  This is due to the Olympic Wind Shadow...  It is coming from just the right direction so we can hide behind the Olympics.  This could change at any time though...  A little tweak in direction and we will have some wind.... As if this isn't interesting enough, the barometer is dropping like a rock and tomorrow morning at 9:13 we will have an 11.14' high tide.  A low barometer and high "king" tides are a bad combination.  Right now the barometer is at 29.51" or 1000mb and falling rapidly.  At this rate, the actual tide will be at or above the 12 foot level.  The NWS has issued a coastal flood advisory for the San Juans and Bellingham area.  Something worth watching...  On my site I have a tidal adjustment number that shows the impact of barometric pressure on the tides.  Right now the tides are 5" higher than predicted.

This graph shows how fast the barometer is dropping....

Typically, the wind begins when the barometer starts going up.... It could be a long 24 hours...

Surfs Up In The Sky....

The sky was beautiful this morning.  The cause is a big wind shear at cloud level.  This creates a unique cloud called Kelvin-Helmhotz.  When two different layers of air are moving at different speeds in the atmosphere, a “wave” will often form.  When the upper layers of air are moving at higher speeds, they can scoop the top of the cloud layer below into wave like structures.  

The conditions are just right today for this phenomenon.  Lots of instability and wind shear.  The winds are really cookin’ north of us right now.  The Port Townsend ferry is shut down due to high winds.  There are Gale Warnings up for Admiralty Inlet and Small Craft Warnings for Puget Sound/ Hood Canal.  Lots of rain and wind coming tonight too….

Update 2:00pm:  The Port Townsend 2:00 run has been cancelled.  So far every run today has been cancelled due to high winds.

Here is a 3 cam time lapse of this morning....  HD Link Here: Panorama Time Lapse

 

Hansville Heat Wave....

Wow.... The temp went off the charts today... High so far is 49.9.... c'mon... one more tenth of a degree to hit 50.... What a heat wave.... :)

Unidentified Flying Object.... Until We Can Identify It....

Every morning I review all the time lapse videos that are made overnight by each camera. Primarily I am looking for meteors, lightning, northern lights or anything unusual. This morning I found something unusual…. And …. If it is in the sky and I can’t identify it.... by definition it is an Unidentified Flying Object…. 😉  In this image on the left hand side there are 2 streaks of light. If they were parallel, I would attribute them to a small plane or helicopter. I see these all the time. But... as you can see, they are not parallel. I can’t explain this one…. Anybody have any thoughts? Or…. Are we just looking at an Unidentified Flying Object….. 😉  Be sure to click on the image to see it full size.

What a beautiful calm day today.... Not a ripple on the water. Looks like things are going to change pretty quick and in a big way.... Here is a snippet from the 3:00 NWS Discussion:

"A pattern change will bring wetter, warmer and windier weather back to Western Washington. This change will take place on Monday as a strong jet lines up over WA. Strong, moist westerly flow will continue through Tuesday and Wednesday and models are ramping up the precip totals in the mountains. Heavy rainfall, with rising snow levels, may cause river flooding."

New Blog For SkunkBayWeather

This past week I gave a presentation at the North Kitsap Puget Sound Anglers meeting.  During the Q&A I mentioned that I use Facebook almost like a blog and also use Twitter.  I explained how you can just go to the SkunkBayWeather page and like it and you would then get all of my posts.  I looked around the room and saw a lot of “Deer In The Headlight” looks…..  There are a LOT of folks who do not want a Facebook account.  Actually, I think most of the folks who visit my site are in this category.  I respect that....  I have also thought about this for quite some time.  I put a lot of content up on Facebook and Twitter and it adds a new dimension to SkunkBayWeather.  The folks without Facebook and Twitter accounts are missing this. 

I suppose I could configure my site to have an easy way for me to update new content like I do on Facebook.  The downside here is that it would not have the capability of interaction.  That’s half the fun.  Giving folks a chance to comment and for me to respond has been very enjoyable….  There are so many things to share.  I really like to keep it light with a little humor too.

I finally decided to put together a blog this weekend. This seems to be a good solution.  I can put a link on my site directly into the blog.  I can post easily and the readers can make comments.  No need for a Facebook account or any account for that matter.  Comments can be made anonymously.  However, this will be moderated by me and comments will not be published until I authorize them.  A Google account is easiest, but not necessary.  I would prefer that folks who comment sign in through a variety of means or at least leave a name/user name of some sort in their comment.  I’d like to know who is making what comment.  This opens the door for a “Weather Community” to grow and have a lively exchange of thoughts, humor and an appreciation of Nature.

So….  If you are reading this, you are on my blog.  I copied and pasted a few simple posts I put up on Facebook recently.  Nothing really weather related, but recent posts.  Just like on Facebook, if there is nothing of substance, I don’t post.  I could “go dark” for a week or two….  Or I may have a half dozen posts in a day….  It’s all “Weather Related”… 😉

This is all a new adventure and I am looking forward to hearing from you.