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In a warming Pacific Northwest, summers are getting hotter and winters less cold, but the atmospheric patterns that influence the weather aren't necessarily expected to become stronger or more frequent by the end of the century, according to a new Portland State University study.
Dry lightning can still be disastrous even when conditions aren’t so dry, a study has found. These cloud-to-ground strikes during little to no rainfall were previously thought to pose wildfire danger only if occurring with less than 2.5 mm of rain in a day (about 0.10 inches). A Washington State University-led study of lightning-ignited wildfires in the U.S. West found the strikes caused wildfires despite up to 7.7 mm (about 0.3 inches) of precipitation. While still a low amount of rain, the more accurate estimation could help responders detect fires earlier, especially those known as “ho...
New research out of UCLA says the Pacific Northwest's extreme heat wave last summer was an event that should have only happened once in 10,000 years and was likely hotter because of climate change.
PORTLAND — Over the last couple of years, the Pacific Northwest has seen an increasing number of extreme weather events.
Last year’s record-breaking heatwave, the latest droughts, and the 2020 Labor Day megafires that spread across Oregon and Washington all have one thing in common: atmospheric ridges, or extended regions of high pressure relative to their surrounding environments that are generally associated with hot and temperate surface conditions.