December 20, 2012

Web Feet in the PacNorWest

This is why we have the webbed feet around here: the past 5 days of rain:

Have to do a camera shot of the screen because NOAA uses some sort of encrypted file to produce their photos that won't transfer directly. Click to enlarge. Note that just West of Portland, an extensive area of 14+ inches of precip recorded (white area), and at my location, over 8" (pink area).

There may be something to the idea that planetary warming (in the natural cycle, man doesn't cause it) is making the weather effects stronger. The white area Eastern border conforms to the weather-side of the Tualatin Ridge of the Coast Range. Up-sloping ("orographic lifting") causes greater precipitation to fall on the weather side, and less to fall on the lee side ("rain shadow"). The Doppler radar is generally accurate in storm total recording to about 10-20% plus or minus. It is most accurate at 15-50 miles from the radar site, so some of the white area may be overdone. I am in the "sweet zone of accuracy, though, so my 8" total is probably on the high end of accurate. I'm too lazy to tend a rain guage anymore.

The Global Warming debate: too bad all that money from all that "carbon trading" isn't going into research on how to make it rain more or less in any given area. With all that moolah, there might have been a technical breakthrough by now.