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Weather Blog - January 2009

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Internet guide to flooding information
Dec 12, 2010 at 4:50 PM PDT
Weekend time lapse fix
Jan 30, 2009 at 8:46 PM PDT
Warm weather fans find themselves hosed
Jan 28, 2009 at 10:09 PM PDT
How can dry air make it snow more?
Jan 27, 2009 at 3:09 PM PDT
Is there a perfect snow scenario?
Jan 26, 2009 at 9:31 PM PDT
Dogs and time lapse videos don't mix
Jan 23, 2009 at 7:38 PM PDT
Official statistics from January floods
Jan 23, 2009 at 6:57 PM PDT
New Zealand tries to outdo Mount Rainier
Jan 22, 2009 at 1:00 PM PDT
Need to warm up? Just climb up a few hundred feet
Jan 21, 2009 at 11:51 PM PDT
UW study says Antarctica's warming...but for how long?
Jan 21, 2009 at 7:54 PM PDT
A journey through the inversion
Jan 20, 2009 at 9:33 PM PDT
What is that strange ball of light in the sky?
Jan 19, 2009 at 8:41 PM PDT
Weekend eye candy: Mega time lapse version
Jan 16, 2009 at 1:00 PM PDT
Don't have a hammer in Minnesota? Just grab a banana!
Jan 15, 2009 at 7:57 PM PDT
Scientists find benefit to fish poop
Jan 15, 2009 at 7:14 PM PDT
Strange things afoot in the "Circle H"
Jan 14, 2009 at 8:50 PM PDT
Winter of weather extremes continues...
Jan 13, 2009 at 10:27 PM PDT
High pressure equals....rain?
Jan 12, 2009 at 10:27 PM PDT
Minnesota: A tropical paradise compared to Alaska
Jan 9, 2009 at 8:03 PM PDT
Two flooding records set
Jan 9, 2009 at 7:33 PM PDT
What a difference two weeks makes!
Jan 9, 2009 at 1:16 AM PDT
How wet did it get?
Jan 8, 2009 at 2:11 PM PDT
Hey Sequim, thanks for the umbrella!
Jan 7, 2009 at 6:41 PM PDT
Hypothetically speaking, the sun looks larger now
Jan 7, 2009 at 2:16 AM PDT
Weekday eye candy: The time lapses are back!
Jan 5, 2009 at 10:02 PM PDT
A look back on the winter storm of the century (so far)
Jan 2, 2009 at 10:46 PM PDT
2008 weather: More than just a big snowstorm
Jan 2, 2009 at 7:01 PM PDT
When storms don't follow the script
Jan 2, 2009 at 1:59 AM PDT

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About Scott Sistek

Meteorologist

Recent Posts

Weather How tornado victims got 25 minutes of precious warning time (Photo Gallery)

By Scott Sistek Published: May 21, 2013 at 12:18 PM PDT Last Updated: May 21, 2013 at 5:15 PM PDT

Twenty-five minutes.

That might not seem very long -- about the time it takes to wade through your favorite weekly sitcom if you fast forward past the commercials. But compared to a few decades ago, 25 minutes of time might have saved countless lives during the devastating tornado that struck Moore, Oklahoma on Monday.

Years ago, the residents of Moore would have likely had no idea the tornado was coming until the twister was sighted, giving people barely a few minutes' notice. But thanks to advancements in technology, tornadoes rarely sneak up on anyone anymore.

In fact, forecasters as early as Wednesday began sounding the alarm for a potential severe weather breakout on Sunday and, on Friday, the forecasts became more specific. On Sunday, a Tornado Watch, which indicates conditions are right for tornadic development, was issued at 1:10 p.m. for much of Oklahoma, including the greater Oklahoma City area.

Weather "What does ''EF-4'' mean?' and other tornado questions answered

By Scott Sistek Published: May 20, 2013 at 4:10 PM PDT

With tornadoes in the news lately I figured it'd be a good time to post answers to some frequently asked questions about the powerful storms:

What does "EF-4" mean?

WIth the devastating tornado in Moore, Oklahoma, you'll be hearing a lot of about "EF" ratings -- that's from the Enhanced Fujita Scale that rates tornadoes on a scale of 0 to 5, 5 being the strongest.

The Moore tornado was given a preliminary rating of EF-4 ("Devastating") with estimated tornadic wind speeds of up to 200 mph, although many are thinking that rating could be increased to an EF-5 ("Incredible") once more damage assessment is done.

Sadly, it's not the first time Moore has had to deal with such a catastrophic storm. On May 3, 1999, Moore was struck by an EF-5 tornado which recorded the strongest wind speed ever registered near Earth's surface. this map provided by the National Weather Service in Norman, Oklahoma shows just how close the two tracks were.

Weather Northern Lights peek out in Eastern Washington (Photo Gallery)

By Scott Sistek Published: May 18, 2013 at 9:57 AM PDT Last Updated: May 19, 2013 at 12:55 AM PDT

As we mentioned in the blog Thursday, there's a particularly active sunspot on the sun right now.

It had, as its opening salvo while starting to face the Earth, unleashed a moderately strong solar flare that reached us late Friday, triggering a display of the Northern Lights that reached as far south as Colorado.

Weather Northern Lights to be visible around the Pacific Northwest soon?

By Scott Sistek Published: May 16, 2013 at 11:33 AM PDT Last Updated: May 16, 2013 at 1:58 PM PDT

The sun has been getting quite active lately, with one sun spot in particular giving off several explosive flares this week, and it could eventually bring some brilliant displays of the Northern Lights to the Pacific Northwest.

Since Monday, Sunspot AR1748 has already given off four "X-class" solar flares -- X being the most powerful class of flares that have potential to disrupt radio and satellite signals. In fact, that flare has given off more X-class flares than every other sunspot of the past year combined, according to spaceweather.com.

Up to this point, the spot has been on a part of the sun not directly facing Earth, so the flares have been directed away from our planet and not really giving us much of an effect.

Weather Northwest Weather Photos: Showing off our spectacular spring (Photo Gallery)

By Scott Sistek Published: May 15, 2013 at 6:50 AM PDT Last Updated: May 15, 2013 at 4:07 PM PDT

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