Is the end of fire season expected soon?

So while we can't argue that the worst of fire season is behind us, it should be noted there are still fires burning across portions of the Inland Northwest. Here's is what satellite information was showing on the last day of September:

MODIS Visible Satellite Imagery from 9/30/15

While these fires are far from the raging infernos we saw earlier this summer, it's still rather impressive for the end of September or beginning of October.  However, as we all know this year is different. First off, look at these precipitation totals since the beginning of April

Idaho Precipitation % of normal 4/2/15-10/1/15

Washington Precipitation % of normal 4/2/15-10/1/15

That is a lot of red and dark red shading over the Inland Northwest which correlates with meager precipitation amounts ranging 25-70% of normal. That's pretty dry. In fact, since the beginning of April through the beginning of October it was the driest period on record for both Spokane and Boundary Dam, WA (extreme NE corner of the state).

So combine the record dry conditions with nearly record warmth for both sites and it is no wonder the fire season has been so long. Here is a look at the temperatures for both sites.

So obviously record warm and dry conditions led to our active fire season, but unlike a typical year, things just aren't winding down as quickly as we are accustomed to. Climatologically, the days of active fires will be limited. We say that because the shorter days are leading to cooler temperatures and higher relative humidity levels  (both items are generally detrimental to good fire growth) while the chances for measurable precipitation are rising quickly. Climatologically the chance of measurable rain ranges from 20-25% over locations where the fires are currently burning. However by the end of the month those chances nearly double. So despite these facts, look at the latest fire danger ratings for the Inland Northwest:

Current Fire danger ratings

That map shows the fire danger is still high (yellow) or even very high (orange) across a sizable portion of the Inland Northwest, with moderate conditions (light green) found everywhere east of the Cascades. So what does that mean? According to the Wildland Fire Assessment System (WFAS) a high fire danger means, "All fine dead fuels ignite readily and fires start easily from most causes. Unattended brush and campfires are likely to escape. Fires spread rapidly and short-distance spotting is common. High-intensity burning may develop on slopes or in concentrations of fine fuels. Fires may become serious and their control difficult unless they are attacked successfully while small.

So is this danger level unusual for the beginning of October? Since 2006 (earliest year of  the graphical archive), the current fire danger has only been matched one time. That was in 2012. All other years saw low to moderate fire danger ratings across the area.

So what was the fire weather like in 2012? This satellite picture tells the story

MODIS Satellite imagery from 10/4/12

Just like this year, there were quite a few fires burning during the beginning of October. In fact, based on the satellite image, they were much bigger and included the Wenatchee Complex (southwest of Wenatchee) and the St. Mary's Misson Rd fire south of Omak. So what happened that year? The dry weather and fires continued to burn through the middle of the month, but several days of rain (not necessarily heavy) and cooler temperatures put an end to that fire season.

So what did the weather pattern look like for the end of that fire season? Well leading up to the end of the fire season, the upper-level pattern exhibited a large ridge parked right off the BC/WA coast with dry northwest flow over the region. Also, note the low-pressure area off the California Coast.

Early October 2012 500 mb pattern. 

So how does the pattern look for most of this week? Although it's far from identical, it does have some similarities, including the low near California, and the ridge over the Pacific Northwest.

500 mb pattern for Monday afternoon (10/5/15)

So what did the weather pattern that led to the end of the fire weather year in 2012 look like? The ridge broke down quite quickly and was replaced swift southwest flow into the Pacific Northwest and a deep low over the Gulf of Alaska. Again this brought cooler temperatures, periods of light rain (moderate in places), as well as significant cloud cover.

Mid-October 2012 500 mb pattern (Oct12-14)

How about this year? Is anything similar expected? Again although not a perfect match, there are some good similarities including a deep Gulf of Alaska low and deep southwest flow pointed into the Pacific Northwest from the eastern Pacific.

500 mb forecast for Oct 10, 2015

So how is our confidence in this solution and will this be the end of the fire season?  There are a few additional tools we can look at. One of the more interesting ones is called the NOMADS ensemble probability tool. This tool queries 21 GFS ensemble members or model runs and calculates the chances of any given parameter. Using this tool we can look at things such as what is our chance of seeing over a tenth of an inch of rain in a day?  When asking that particular question, here is the answer for the Grizzly Complex located over northern Shoshone County, ID.

The probability of seeing 0.10" of rain or more in 24 hrs over northern Shoshone County. 

So if you key in on the clustering of the blue bars, you can see that there is some consensus that by next weekend (10/10 and 10/11) that the weather pattern will support an increasing chance of rain (it peaks at 25% for the 24 hrs between 5pm Saturday through 5pm Sunday). Notice also that there is a small chance of light rain during the middle of the week.

Stay tuned and we shall see if this will truly be the end of a historically warm and dry fire season across the Inland Northwest.

Is it still looking wet for this Memorial Day Weekend?

So a couple days have passed since our last blog post about the weather outlook for the Inland Northwest for the upcoming Memorial Day weekend. Consequently, our confidence in what sort of weather to expect should be increasing. Recall that in the last post, there were suggestions that this could be a very wet weekend. In fact, perhaps the wettest Memorial Day weekend since 1997 and the second wettest on record (since 1970). So is that still the case?

Saturday 500 mb height

Above is the 500 mb map for Saturday from the GFS. This is a similar setup to the maps we explored earlier this week with a deep low centered over the Pacific Northwest. So is this GFS run an outlier or do other model agree with the solution?

4 different models showing 500 mb heights for Saturday (upper left model did not come in fully)

Here's is a look at 4 models compared to each other and they all show a low focused somewhere over the Pacific Northwest on Saturday. So where is this low on Sunday?

500 mb maps for Sunday

Again there is great agreement that there will be a low focused somewhere over the Pacific Northwest. The top 2 models take the low into southern Oregon, whereas the bottom two models drop the low into southern Oregon. Now, what the positioning of the low on Memorial Day?

500 mb maps for Monday

Again all the models keep the low over the region, however, the consensus is to drop the low south of the Washington/Oregon border.

So our confidence in this event is quite high. We are certain this low will form and move over portions of the Inland Northwest however how long it will remain over the area and where its precipitation  band will set up is the big question. Looking at the GFS for the Saturday and Sunday yields a significant northwest to southeast orientated band of precipitation.

48 hr precipitation amounts for Saturday-Sunday (latest model run )

This is quite similar to the previous model run we looked at a couple days ago(see below). Both model runs show a similarly oriented band of precipitation, however,  the latest version has the band a little farther to the west leaving places such as Sandpoint and Colville much drier than the previous forecast.

Rainfall forecast for Saturday and Sunday (Monday's model run)

Obviously wherever this band sets up will determine who gets a lot of rain and who doesn't. If we decide to consult another model solution it also shows a similar NW-SE band setting up, but this time it's displaced even further west. If this solution were to pan out even Spokane would miss out on the bulk of the rain as would the Silver Valley. 

Another Saturday-Sunday 48 hr precipitation forecast

So given these uncertainties it will be hard to pinpoint exactly where the band will take up residence. This is where ensemble model forecast can sometimes help to pinpoint the band (s) of heavy precipitation. So once again referring to the GEFS/NAEFS ensemble forecasts we see that it maintains a NW-SE oriented band of heavy precipitation as well. However the model has backed off from previous runs which suggested this would be a 99-99.9 percentile event for this time of year. Nonetheless the model still suggests this is potentially a 90-97 percentile event which is still significant. 

NAEFS/GEFS Ensemble 48 hr rainfall Sat-Sun

So what about the temperature forecast? We are holding onto our thoughts of hitting near 70° each day in Spokane this weekend, however if the band hits our area what will our temperature be? To say there is some uncertainty in this forecast would be an understatement. The 12z run of the GFS (dark blue line) has our high hitting the mid-70s that day. How about the 18z run of the GFS? A chilly mid-50s! That is about as uncertain as things can get. Its pretty much the same story for other parts of the Inland Northwest including Moses Lake (bottom meteogram)

Meteogram for Spokane

Meteogram for Moses Lake

This forecast remains a problematic one. Suffice it to say a good portion of the Inland Northwest is going to see a soggy beginning to the holiday weekend. Specifically where that will be, we still can't say with good confidence.  We expect the wettest day of the three-day weekend will be Saturday with a gradual improvement expected after that.

Severe Weather Tomorrow??? It's a Possibility.

We have all heard of the calm before the storm, today could be just another chapter in that book. This afternoon will feature highs in the 70's and 80's under mostly sunny skies. Come tomorrow the chance for showers and thunderstorms will be on the rise as an area of low pressure approaches the Inland Northwest. Temperatures will continue on the warm side of normal, but increased moisture will push ahead of the low pressure center increasing our chances for convective activity or thunderstorms. In this post we will evaluate the chances for thunder around the region and the potential timing through various weather maps and products.

So lets start out with today and move forward from there. Our current pattern has a ridge of high pressure directly over the Inland Northwest keeping conditions calm and pleasant. The ridge also allows for warm southwesterly flow to advect into our area bringing above normal temperatures today. We will take a look at the current set up in the following image.

 11am PDT Infared satellite map with 500mb heights

From the image we can see the area of low pressure to our west and the current ridge over us. The ridge is also diverting much of the cloud cover to our north. As the low slowly moves onshore the ridge will continue to be shifted to the east allowing clouds to move east of the Cascades. Not only will this bring increased cloud cover for tomorrow afternoon, but also increased moisture through the atmospheric column allowing better instability. So lets take a look at the increased moisture moving in. This can be accomplished in a couple of manners, but we will look at Precipitable Water or PWATs in the atmospheric column.

Precipitable Water values from 11am today (left image) and 5pm Thursday (right image)

The images above show the increase in atmospheric moisture from today to tomorrow from the North American Model (NAM). For much of the Inland NW we will see an increase of nearly a quarter of an inch of precipitable water. Another method to address the amount of moisture would be the change in forecast soundings which show temperature and dewpoints up through the atmosphere. Next we will examine the forecast soundings to see the change in moisture from today to tomorrow.

NAM forecast soundings from 2pm today (left image) and 2pm Thursday (right image)

From the sounding you can see the major differences in the amount of moisture present. The red line would indicate the temperatures and the green indicates the dewpoint which reflects the amount of moisture in the atmosphere. For the left image a dry layer is noted around 500mb (where the green line moves away from the red) whereas for tomorrow (right image) much more moisture is present (green and red lines are closer throughout the image). So from these two examples the change in moisture can easily be noted, but will we have the instability to promote the thunderstorms? We will now at these parameters that promote thunderstorms.

For thunderstorms to occur, many things need to be present including lift (forcing), moisture and instability (atmospheric stability). We will first look at the lift for the area and the one way to do this is to compare from today's conditions to tomorrow. Below is an image looking at the Q vector convergence in the upper atmosphere or Div-Q. Div-Q is a generalized way to assess the lifting potential in a portion of the atmosphere.

Upper level Div Q from 11am today (left image) and 5pm Thursday (right image)

From comparing the images we can see the major differences concerning forcing. Tomorrow the low will move onshore bringing a good amount of forcing ultimately aiding in thunderstorm development. With the right image being for 5pm tomorrow, we will most likely be looking at a case that will unfold more in the late afternoon and evening hours rather than early in the afternoon. Would this be a good or a bad thing with it unfolding in the evening? For now it looks good. We have been hitting our high temperatures in the late afternoon/early evening which would be the best time for the stronger storms, so this would also would aid in thunderstorm development. We have already looked at the moisture profiles for the area and have concluded that higher amounts of moisture will be in place. Finally we will look at one of the convective parameters that are normally consulted to address thunderstorm potentials which is CAPE or the Convective Available Potential Energy. First we will once again look at the NAM model. It has been the most aggressive when it comes to CAPE values, but paints a similar picture to the others as to the areas with the best chances for seeing thunderstorms.

NAM CAPE values for 5pm Thursday

From the NAM we can see a broad area with values surpassing 1000J/kg and localized areas greater than 1500J/kg (blue and green shading). If you remember around a week ago on the afternoon of June 3rd we had thunderstorms for much of the area. These storms were also working with around 1000J/kg of CAPE. With the NAM being on the upper end of model perspective lets take a look at another one. Next we will examine the model often used by the Storm Prediction Center (SPC) in Norman, OK which is the SREF or the Short Range Ensemble Forecast.

SREF CAPE values for 5pm tomorrow

Although not as colorful as the NAM, the SREF is also showing higher values for eastern Washington and into the Idaho Panhandle. It also has peak values in the 1000J/kg to 1250J/kg range. So we do have some consistency among short range models of the potential for higher amounts of CAPE. So with all of this in mind, now comes the million dollar? will we see thunderstorms and if so, how strong will they be? Concerning the chance for thunderstorms, it is a given. We will see thunderstorms tomorrow. The next question is where? As we can see, the best forcing will be in the eastern third of Washington and the Idaho Panhandle so these are the locations with the best chances. We do not want to omit the chance for the east slopes of the Cascades or the Basin, but the threat will not be as great as the other locations. From the SPC, they create a calibrated outlook of the thunderstorm chances for a location so lets take a look at what they think.

SPC calibrated thunderstorm probabilities between 5am-5pm Thursday

So from the SPC, they highlight a 40% chance for much of northeast Washington into the Idaho Panhandle.  These are some of the higher values I have seen from this for our area so it would lead me to think the chance for thunderstorms is essentially a slam dunk.  Finally the big one.....will any of the storms be severe? Here at the office we seem to think the potential is definitely there for strong storms. Comparing to last week, we had similar CAPE values, but tomorrow we actually have better dynamics to support storms. The SPC also does a product for the chances of severe storms and here it is.

SPC severe thunderstorm probabilities for 5pm Thursday

While the chances for severe storms do not look very high, they still highlight the potential for portions of the area. This product usually only has slight chances for us when severe events do occur, so the potential is there. The region will want to keep an eye on the skies tomorrow as active weather looks to be a given.

Weird Temperatures

  In previous blogs, we've noted how there are a few ingredients that affect temperatures. We're all familiar with the affects of sunshine and its resultant heating. In meteorological terms we like to call this the "diurnal cycle", since it corresponds to the daily sunrise and sunset cycle. Here's a graph of what we're talking about:

Hourly temperature graph for Deer Park, WA. 

This shows the temperature at Deer Park, Washington for an "average" winter day, one that wasn't affected by clouds, precipitation, wind, etc.  With time starting on the left, the temperature warms during the day shortly after sunrise. The temperature then reaches it peak around 3pm after continuous solar heating. The temperature then rapidly plummets after sunset, continuing to cool through the remainder of the night until the sun rises again and the cycle repeats itself. Sunrise and sunset for this time of year are around 730 am and 400 pm. 

On the past few nights, we've seen some temperatures that haven't "behaved" like the average diurnal cycle.  The image below shows Deer Park on the 7th through the 9th.  

Hourly temperatures for Deer Park, WA 12/7-12/9 2013

On the morning of the 7th (left part of the graph), temperatures started off around -5°F, and then gradually warmed to 13°F in the afternoon under sunny skies.  And then the temperature quickly plummeted back to 0°F by 6pm.  But then a strange thing happened; the temperature warmed overnight, and actually reached 13°F again at sunrise on the 9th.  In other words, the temperature at 8 am on the 9th was the same as during the previous afternoon.  How could this happen?

Let's take a step back and discuss how the sun actually warms us.  The suns rays don't warm the air directly.  Instead, the suns rays largely pass through our atmosphere and reach the earth's surface, where it is absorbed by the ground, roads, buildings, etc. This energy then warms the air above it.  

Earth-Atmosphere Energy Balance

After the sun sets, there is no incoming solar energy.  But the earth's surface still radiates it's energy (i.e. it cools).  If the skies are clear and the air is dry, this process is very efficient, and the cooling is rapid.  But if the skies are cloudy, the warmth that is radiated by the earth is trapped, and this acts to warm the air, even at night.

Nighttime heat radiation 

So in the case on the 8th/9th of December, under sunny skies, the incoming solar radiation warmed Deer Park up to 13°F.  But as soon as the sun set, the earth quickly cooled under the clear skies.  At 6pm, clouds moved into the area.  Not only did this stop the cooling process, it actually warmed the air.  The clouds "catch" the energy emitted from the earth and re-emit it back to the surface, just like a blanket on your bed.

A similar event took place last night.  Here's the temperature trace at Deer Park again, this time for the 10th and 11th.

As before, temperatures reached their high around 3pm (25°F on Tuesday), cooled quickly to 10°F by 7:30pm, and then warmed overnight.  All of this warming could be solely attributed to the cloud cover.  There is no "warm wind", warm front,  or anything like that.

All of this leads to the question:  In the winter,  at our latitude, what's better, a sunny day and clear night, or a cloudy day and night?  If you're not a fan of cold temperatures, then as nice as a sunny day is, it's probably better to hope for the clouds.  The prevalent low clouds and fog typically found in the Inland Northwest during the winter may seem dreary at times.  But it keeps our temperatures on average much milder than other locations at our latitude (e.g. Great Falls, Duluth, and Caribou, ME). The clouds have the most apparent impact on our low temperatures. See the chart below for details.