Welcome To Spring

Welcome to spring 2009 ! We passed from winter into spring early this morning around 4:22am. As usual, it was a quiet transition here in the Northwest. Let's hope we start to get some March, April, and May showers because we really need the rain.

I've had a few people ask me if we are done with a snow threat for this year, I think we are, but I can't rule out the possibility of another cold trough coming in from the north and giving us a chance at snow one more time. It's awful hard to get snow here now because the sun is strong enough to heat the atmosphere well above freezing early in the day. Now, if we had something during the night, we could get a dusting. I think we are done, but it could happen.

We are beginning to make the move from a snow threat to the convective season. We will start seeing heavier showers with hail and increased possibility of thunderstorms. The sun's strength and the somewhat cooler air above us help trigger convection and we get heavier showers and hail, sometimes they become strong enough to be thunderstorms. In the summer season, we see storms form over the mountains. Warm moist air from the south is forced over the Cascades and when the air hits the mountains, it is forced to rise. Warm air rising causes instability and we trigger storms. Some of these can become severe. Here in the metro area, we sometimes see these storms drift into the valley. When that happens, it's time to chase. Yes I said chase. I chase thunderstorms !

The weather for the next few days will be showers on and off. A very typical spring like pattern. Happy Spring !