Charlie Phillips


  • 6:30 pm EDT

    Most wildfire starts during Pacific Northwest summers occur on just a couple of days, when large dry lightning outbreaks impact the region. The most extreme dry lightning outbreaks can cause […]

  • I’m writing this blog from a hotel in Greenwich Village in New York City! I flew in here on Wednesday afternoon to spend a few days in the city before going to the Hamptons Jazz Festival on Long Island, a […]

    • This recent strain of Covid is really contagious. We are all just getting over it but thankfully, not nearly as bad as the original. It’s a shame you had to get sick on your trip. Hope you get over it quickly. Take care.

  • 7am Sunday

    As you’ve probably heard by now, the Pacific Northwest will experience a significant, prolonged heat wave this week. Excessive Heat Watches are currently in effect for the Willamette Valley, N […]

  • 11 pm Saturday

    After the coldest spring on record for portions of the Pacific Northwest, true summertime warmth has finally arrived! Seattle reached 77 Friday and 86 today, and Portland hit 84 Friday and 93 […]

  • Agreed Cathie! The rest of the West really needs the rain – at this point, we can just hope for a good monsoon season over the Desert SW.

  • Earlier this week, South-Central Montana – and Yellowstone National Park in particular – experienced extreme flooding as an atmospheric river dumped several inches of rain onto a rapidly-melting, […]

    • It’s hard to imagine that happening in Yellowstone. It’s a shame that it couldn’t have moved south to New Mexico and S. California where they really need it.

  • We are finally starting to see some summer-like weather over the Pacific Northwest. I went for a nice bike ride on Sunday down to West Point in Discovery Park, and the weather was absolutely perfect, with highs t […]

  • Charlie Phillips wrote a new post on the site Charlie's Weather 4 years ago

    La Ninas typically feature cool and wet springs, and the 2021-2022 La Nina has had that in spades. According to Chief Fox12 Meteorologist Mark Nelsen, Portland just experienced its wettest April on record, the […]

  • Yes – the rumors are true. There is a chance of lowland snow tonight into Monday morning for Southwest Washington and Northwest Oregon. Some spots over Washington have already seen some snow showers this m […]

  • Most La Ninas and El Ninos peak in December or early January. In fact, El Nino was first called “El Nino de Navidad” (translated from Spanish to “the Christ Child”) by Peruvian fisherman in the 1600s due to its […]

  • Yesterday, I went for a stroll through through Azalea Way in the Washington Arboretum, a gravel path lined by cherries, azaleas, rhododendrons, and many other beautiful flowers, shrubs, and trees. Azalea Way has a […]

  • Meteorological spring begins on March 1st, and you can feel it in the air. After 1.25” of rain on 2/27 and an incredible 2.97” on 2/28, the weather since Tuesday 3/1 has been tranquil, with partly cloudy skies int […]

  • On Friday, my brother and I traveled up to Stevens Pass and had an amazing time skiing in the sunshine. Conditions were a little icy to begin, but after 11am or so, the south-facing slopes on the backside of the […]

  • In a blow to professional meteorologists, a recent poll of 2,000 Americans showed that 58% of U.S. adults believe that Punxsutawney Phil seeing his shadow is an accurate indicator of whether there will be winter, […]

  • Beginning around 1/14, a strong ridge of high pressure began to form over the Pacific Northwest, and although a few weak systems passing over it have brought a few sprinkles to Western Washington and Oregon at […]

  • Last week, and unbeknownst to each other, my brother and mother called me on the same day with the exact same question: “Why does Seattle have so many potholes right now?” My knee-jerk reaction was to rant aga […]

  • Atmospheric rivers, like the one over Western WA right now, are strong, narrow, and often slow-moving streams of mild, moist air stretching from the subtropics to the midlatitudes.

    When this air slams into […]

  • On Friday, Seattle was cut off from the north, the south, and the east due to flooding from the Chehalis River inundating I-5, extreme amounts of snow in the Washington passes, and all roads out of Vancouver BC […]

  • Running out the door to head to my energy trading shift, but thought I’d post a quick update regarding the historic arctic blast and our accompanying lowland snow chances before then. Hope to have more tomorrow […]

  • The Pacific Northwest has seen tons of mountain snow over the past 10 days. Since December 9, Snoqualmie Pass has seen approximately 8 feet of snow, and all of the major Cascade ski resorts, from Mt. Baker in the […]

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