Weather Blog

Many people head to Alaska to visit the snow-capped mountains and awe-inspiring glaciers.

Monday, sitting on a glacier might not have been a bad idea.

A major ridge of high pressure brought intense heat to south-central Alaska with four towns experiencing heat never before felt in their record-keeping history.

For the second month in a row, Seattle has managed to set an obscure, but all-time weather record. And once again, it goes with the prevailing theme of super nice weather to begin a month, then paying for it as the month draws to a close.

In May, it was the first 11 days with zero rain and being warmer than 65 degrees.

This month, the first 14 days of June have had high temperatures of 68 degrees or warmer -- the first time that's ever happened in the 68 years of Sea-Tac Airport records, according to meteorologist Jason Phelps. That record has since been stretched to 16 days with a chance of the 17th coming Monday.

You've all seen rainbows on those days where it's raining and the sun's out at the same time. But what about those times when you see a rainbow-like halo around the sun or moon?

It's the same physics, really. The halos (or, sometimes known as "sundogs" around the sun) are usually seen when there are high cirrus clouds overhead.

Those clouds are made of tiny ice crystals, which will refract the sunlight much like a prism will and voila! You have a rainbow halo around the sun.

Don Jensen had a neat idea when the Northern Lights came out in early June: Use Mt. Rainier as a tall dividing line to showcase how the city lights of the Seattle metro area can interfere with viewing the aurora.

But more than that, Jensen wondered if our city really needs to be so bright.

His 17-second video was captured the night of June 6 into the morning of June 7 and shows roughly four hours of night activity over our tallest volcano.

While it's been fairly pleasant around here this spring, summer-like weather has already been well under way in many other parts of the nation.

Denver hit 100 degrees on June 11 -- the earliest 100 degree on record there... by three days! Atlanta hit their inaugural 90 this week, Minneapolis hit 98 in May, parts of Oklahoma are at 100, Livermore, California has already notched 107, Phoenix has been over 108 for a week, and Death Valley has already been over 120!

Back here, we flirted with the upper 80s on one day and have touched 80 on a handful of others, but otherwise, it's been downright comfortable with most days 65-75.

Could that be the building theme of the upcoming summer? Could the Northwest be the refuge from another searing hot summer across the rest of the United States?

A lot of focus this month across the nation has been on stormy weather, but some calm weather has been dazzling a bit as well...

The photo above was taken by Toby Smith as he crossed on a ferry from Clinton to Mukilteo.

Then, a few days later way over in Ontario, Kathy Veck snapped a few shots of a brilliant fire rainbows in Ottawa.

Storm chaser Mike Olbinski proved that you don't have to capture a tornado on camera to have an amazing video.

Olbinski was near Booker, Texas on June 3 when he and his weather-geek friend Andy Hoeland got video of a rotating supercell thunderstorm -- an elusive item on his "to-do" checklist for four years.

The two figured out early in the day that northwestern Oklahoma was the spot to begin.

"We landed in Denver that day around 10:30am, and drove and drove until we got that storm," Olbinski said. "We actually had no idea we had made it to Texas until a bit later."

But at first, they ended up on the wrong (north) side of the storm. "It took us going through hail and torrential rains to burst through on the south side (where wall clouds are more visible)," Olbinski wrote on his blog documenting the event. "And when we did…this monster cloud was hanging over Texas and rotating like something out of Close Encounters."

The video is shot in four parts as the two had to move to better position themselves.

SEATTLE -- Some cell phones around the Puget Sound region were urgently alerting their users to a flash flood warning Wednesday afternoon. But don't worry, the alert was not for the Puget Sound region.

The ominous advisory read:

"Flash Flood Warning this area til 6:00 PM AST. Avoid flood areas. Check local media -NWS Type: Imminent severe alert."

I had the honor in early June to make a presentation at the annual Mariners Weather Education Day at Safeco Field before their mammoth 16 inning game against the Chicago White Sox.

This year, as in years past, I compiled some of my favorite photos and videos from this blog over the past year or so. 

From intricate lightning strikes, to a tornado that crashes a Kansas wedding, to what 3 feet of snow looks like boiled down to just a few seconds, to what happens when you suddenly spring a 58 mph wind squall on an unsuspecting grounds crew at a Knoxville minor league game, Mother Nature sure has had her moments this year.

If you want to find out more information or see the full length of the videos featured within, I've provided links below to the original blog entries where they came from. Enjoy!

In many ways, air flows in fluid ways that mimic currents in the sea.

On Friday, there was an incredible cloud display that drove this point home.

Liem Bahneman took this time lapse video of altocumulus "Undulatus Aperatus" clouds over Bothell Friday morning -- actually a display of the newest member of the cloud categorization.

If three straight days of near 80 degrees wasn't enough of a sign that summer is getting close, perhaps the bare ground at Stevens Pass will drive the point home.

It looks like June 7 will go down as the date when Stevens Pass officially "melts out" -- as in has less than 2 inches of snow on the ground at its 4,080 feet elevation. It turns out that is right on average for the past 10 years, but according to UW Research Meteorologist Mark Albright, "if you think the hiking season in the Cascade Mountains is starting later now than it used to about 30 years ago, you would be right."

Records at the pass go back to 1980 and the median meltout date overall is June 2. But it has steadily been getting later as the years progressed.

Local photographer Liem Bahneman has had his shares of incredible photos around the Seattle area, be it the northern lights, or the Supermoon.

But Wednesday he captured an elusive photo near Bothell of something he's been trying to find for years -- a parhelic circle.

What could be more fun that learning about science, launching a raw egg into fringe of outer space, and setting a world record in the progress?

(I could add: "And get to spend some time out in the sunshine instead of stuck in class?")

Richard Miller's 8th grade Aerospace Class at Key Peninsula Middle School in Lakebay got to do all that on Friday, launching a high altitude (weather-type) balloon that had a tracking device, two cameras, a raw egg, and a thermometer.

"I wanted my aerospace students to dream big and do a big end of year project involving actual near space flight," he said.

The goal: Set the record for highest successful egg drop, currently around 700 feet.

Mission accomplished.