0.05 inches so far; a rare sighting in Seattle in January

1)  The quarter inch predicted/hoped for here fell on Borrego Springs, CA, (0.27 inches) instead.   So, it was pretty close.  We received a measly trace in the past 24 until we got 0.05 inches just now!  Barely made the 0.05 inches, thought to be the least that could fall.  So, in humility, will be expanding limits of storms, maybe go with 0-5 inches possible amounts for every next storm.  Should hit those.

2) Mods still think more rain is ahead over the next few days, beginning on Thursday.  This period of rain has always been predicted to be more than yesterday anyway.

3) As an outstanding weather note for my reader, I thought I would post this photo from a friend in Seattle of the exceptionally warm weather for this time of year they had yesterday in Seattle (60s).  A young1 woman at Green Lake in Seattle displays how warm it is by dawning a bikini, near where the present writer used to live.  “Smells like global warming”,  as Seattle’s own Kurt Cobain1 might have said about yesterday,  if he wasn’t dead.

While there have been studies about cherry blossoms and that kind of thing coming out earlier in the spring back East of late, maybe there should be one about bikinis coming out earlier, too.  How many weeks earlier in spring than during the Little Ice Age, do we see bikinis nowadays?  How long has the bikini season been lengthened?  Is it commensurate with lengthening of the growing season? That would be a VERY interesting scientific question to address, one that needs to be fully addressed via graphs and photo documentation.  Applying  for NSF global warming grant monies now…..

Yesterday afternoon at Green Lake in Seattle. A young woman dawns a bikini! Unheard of in January in Seattle!
Yesterday afternoon at Green Lake in Seattle. A young woman dawns a bikini! Unheard of in January in Seattle!  Thought I would display this full size so that you could see how warm it is.  Thanks to Bob S, Ballard District,  for supplying this datum.

 Yesterday’s clouds

8:31 AM. Rainband encroaches from the south horizon. Flow was from the southeast, but movement of band was to the north. The clouds in the foreground are two layers of Altocumulus.
8:31 AM. Rainband encroaches from the south horizon. Flow was from the southeast, but movement of band was to the north. The clouds in the foreground are two layers of Altocumulus.  The banded rain cloud moving toward us would be Nimbostratus.
11:30 AM. Dammitall, its still not here, and now the rain coming out of the band is so slight you can see through to the other side! Nice birds of some kind on the wires, upper left. Makes me think of that Leonard Cohen song, Bird on the Wire, best interpreted by Judy Collins, of course.
11:30 AM. Dammitall, its still not here, and now the rain coming out of the band is so slight you can see through to the other side! Nice birds of some kind on the wires, upper left. Makes me think of that Leonard Cohen song, Bird on the Wire, best interpreted by Judy Collins, of course.

 

11:31 AM. Lotta birds on the wire. I thought you should see this. Above, Altocumulus/Stratocumulus, with a higher layer of Altostratus.
11:31 AM. Lotta birds on the wire. I thought you should see this. Above, Altocumulus/Stratocumulus, with a higher layer of Altostratus.
4:08 PM. After the trace and clearing, a new bank of Altocumulus/Stratocumulus and rain band approached from the south
4:08 PM. After the trace and clearing, a new bank of Altocumulus/Stratocumulus and rain band approached from the south.  Virga can be seen on the horizon, too.  Hope building again for measurable rain.
4:19 PM. From the corral, a display of Altocumulus/Stratocumulus lenticulars downstream from the Catalinas.
4:19 PM. From the corral, a display of Altocumulus/Stratocumulus lenticulars downstream from the Catalinas.  Nice lighting on hills, too.
4:30 PM. Cloud maven juniors should have noticed that the lower layer of clouds here are LOWER than the clouds that passed over earlier. That means the incoming rainband had a better chance of producing measurable rain though it didn't.
4:30 PM. Cloud maven juniors should have noticed that the lower layer of clouds here (left of center), are LOWER than the clouds that passed over earlier. That means the incoming rainband had a better chance of producing measurable rain though it didn’t.
4:40 PM. Another great sign that measurable rain was on the doorstep though it didn't were these faint Cumulonimbus tops. Gettin' excited here, as you were no doubt.
4:40 PM. Another great sign that measurable rain was on the doorstep though it didn’t were these faint Cumulonimbus tops showing up beyond Pusch Ridge. Gettin’ excited here, as you were no doubt.  Some pretty hard radar cells came up out of Mexico then.

That’s it.  No more photos, no rain last night, either, but in some kind of rain miracle, it has just put 0.05 inches in the gauge! So, the forecast from this typewriter that 0.05 inches was the least that could occur in this “storm” has been verified!

Conditions not ripe for much more, though a few light showers are still upwind.  Clouds oughta thin as the morning goes along,  with huge breaks in the clouds this afternoon.

Mods suggest more rain beginning as early as Thursday night.  This one has more potential for rain here, somewhere between 0 and 5 inches, i. e., only a 10% chance of less than zero; less than 10% chance of more than 5 inches.  There, that should do it….

The End

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Composer, lead singer for that Seattle band, Nirvana.  You can see Kurt in a cloud of smoke singing, “Smells like air pressure here“, a Bill Nye parody of the true Nirvana hit where Cobain sings in a lot of smoke, “Smells like teen spirit.”  Compare versions.

Author: Art Rangno

Retiree from a group specializing in airborne measurements of clouds and aerosols at the University of Washington (Cloud and Aerosol Research Group). The projects in which I participated were in many countries; from the Arctic to Brazil, from the Marshall Islands to South Africa.