December 22, 2016

Where to go for a dry vacation?

The holiday break period is looming and folks want to know:  where will it be dry?    Well, to answer that question, below is the 1-week precipitation total from the National Weather Service GFS model.

Western WA and British Columbia:  wet.  In fact, wet along the entire West Coast, including California.  Northeast and central U.S.: wet.


You want to be dry in the lower-48 states?  Eastern Colorado is a good bet as the Florida panhandle. For completely dry conditions, head to Mexico:  Cabo San Lucas and the central/southern Mexican coast looks good.

Here in the NW, wet is the word.  The forecast for the next 3 days, indicates several inches for western Oregon and northern California.


The next 72 hr moves the focus of the rain back to the Northwest and southwest BC.

Finally,  let's take a look at our latest snowpack numbers--and they look good. The Olympics and western Cascade slopes are generally at 120-150%, with eastern WA roughly 75-90%.  With a good snowpack and all the regional reservoirs above normal, water resources for next summer looks good.




6 comments:

  1. The trend is good, but if there's anything we've learned from recent years is that you can't make a reasonably reliable, let alone definitive call on summer water supplies in December. We've seen bad years turn good in March and April, and we've seen good December snowpacks disappear way too early.

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  2. You can't go wrong with Florida.Looks like a warm high pressure will be parked there indefinitely.It probably will be in the 80's in Miami.Not too bad in Atlanta for the Husky fans, either.60-70 degree wx there.Just hope game time is between frontal passages.

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  3. (Apologies if this comment posts twice.)

    Cliff, could you write a post about the "blob" of warm water that was previously observed in the northern Pacific? Is it completely gone? And if so, is that why precipitation has been plentiful in the Pacific northwest?

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  4. Hi Cliff, I'm seeing a winter weather advisory from the NWS for snow this evening. Any comments?

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  5. Snow falling (but not yet sticking) in Ravenna, NE 65th St. & 20th Ave. NE. Given our low elevation, I'm thinking it'll be sticking on hilltops soon, if not already. Definitely earlier than NWS prediction.

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  6. Rain changed to wet snow at 2pm on South Vashon. Dew point 32F.

    0.93 inches of rain from Thursday night through 2pm Friday.

    ReplyDelete

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