The flooding tragedy in Texas had a component common to nearly all recent weather-related disasters:
The weather predictions and warnings were excellent, but local governments, utilities, and other responsible parties did not use the excellent meteorological guidance effectively.
Similar poor use of skillful forecasts has occurred frequently and recently, such as the strong winds that produced massive fires in Maui and Los Angeles. Or the excellent precipitation forecasts for Hurricane Helene that were not effectively used to warn.
We should not feel too smug here in the Northwest.
During the past five years, hundreds have died in our region from meteorological conditions. From heat and cold. From trees falling during intense windstorms. Due to river and coastal flooding. Others have fallen from accidents on "black ice", while many have been sickened by wildfire smoke.
In virtually all of these cases, the forecasts were good to excellent, and lives could have been saved and damage avoided if the correct actions had been taken.
We need a better way to make both individuals and governments better aware of the nature of the meteorological threats.
Seattle could help lead the way.
Imagine an online website/smartphone app that would warn of all the major weather-related problems (see example below)
The integration could be done in a few months, allowing the City and local residents to enjoy state-of-science warnings and weather information.
It is important to remind folks in areas without cell service that the National Weather Service still maintains NOAA Weather Radar, which will beep and provide terse emergency weather information during dangerous periods.
Announcement
I could be a good time to be prepared for sure, the weather this year seems way out of whack, in the south sound area (Steamboat Island area ) this year we have had a cold dry spring and now a bone dry summer and I mean bone dry, also more wind then I can remember, we could be months away from any decent rain and that's a little frightening , not much we can do about it but be a proactive. Rain dances maybe? LOL
ReplyDeleteThere was some decent rain at the coast this week. Here's hoping you get some much needed rain soon.
DeleteI can vouch for Snowatch being an invaluable asset in evaluating and decision making for full time motorcycling in Puget Sound. Snowatch in concert with other weather related data, such as relative humidity and dew points, allows me to lower my risk on snow and road icing days. Micro climates sometime rule :-) yet I've learned to raise my awareness and judgement. Good job, Cliff and team! Thank you!
ReplyDeleteHey, Cliff! Have you had a chance to work with HRRRcast yet? I was interested to read that it was matching or beating the operational HRRR all the way out to 48 hours, yet because it's data-driven it's up to 1,000 times more computationally efficient -- it can be run on a laptop. Sounds like a big leap forward, and it's good to see NWS playing such a big role.
ReplyDeleteThe soil in my grass-covered backyard (at a depth of 4-6" below ground surface) has now reached complete desiccation with no measurable moisture. This is the earliest I've observed such an occurrence and is about a month earlier than normal based on the data I've collected over the years for this parameter. Even during the historically dry 2023, it wasn't until 8/24 before the soil reached complete desiccation.
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