Charlie Phillips


  • We all know that the winter solstice has the shortest daylight of the year. But you might be surprised to learn that this solstice has neither the earliest sunset, nor the latest sunrise, of any day throughout the […]

  • One of our family friends is a brilliant oceanography professor and extremely accomplished skier, and he has a t-shirt that says “Viva La Nina.” It’s a perfect shirt for an oceanographer (since La Nina is a […]

  • Happy Christmas Eve everybody! I hope this post finds you all in good health and cheer, or at least as good as things can be considering the times. I was fortunate enough to witness the “Grand Conjunction” last […]

  • Thanks so much for reading Rich! If you ever have any questions about the technical points just post them in the comments and I’ll do my best to answer them.

  • Mountains looked beautiful yesterday from afar, bummed I couldn’t go up this weekend but aiming to next weekend! And yes, Mark Ingalls thought the same thing when he saw the title 😀

  • When most Portlanders think of December, they think of Christmas trees, advent calendars, and cars with those big bows on them. Certainly not sunny skies, and much less 50+ degree temperatures to accompany […]

    • Charlie, I’ve been enjoying the dry weather here, especially when having the doggies outside, though looking forward to more precip., especially mountain snows.
      incidentally, when I saw your blog post title, I first read, “Rainier” as the volcano instead of the wet version! Wow, to get a Mt. Rainier pattern in Portland would be AMAZING!!

    • Mountains looked beautiful yesterday from afar, bummed I couldn’t go up this weekend but aiming to next weekend! And yes, Mark Ingalls thought the same thing when he saw the title 😀

    • Thanks so much for reading Rich! If you ever have any questions about the technical points just post them in the comments and I’ll do my best to answer them.

  • For our high school senior portraits in the Garfield High School yearbook, we had the option of putting a quote next to our name. I quoted the great John Ruskin, a multi-talented, leading English art critic of the […]

  • We’ve seen a dramatic shift in most model solutions over the past 48 hours. On Monday, models showed a very deep low – approximately 965-970 mb – making landfall near the northern tip of Vancouver Island, […]

  • Good evening all! There’s a lot of buzz regarding Friday’s storm, so I thought I’d write a quick update clarifying some of the potential impacts of the storm and how the forecast has changed since […]

  • Yeah, looking at seasonal snow totals you are right… I just remember it as being underwhelming cause we had a late start (very little snow November/December, but a ton of snow the first half of January) and getting cut short in March from COVID. Wasn’t able to make it up to the slopes during that early January dump but I bet the conditions were…[Read more]

  • According to a 2005 Gallup poll, Americans think November is the 8th best month of the year. November has a few things going for it; the Macy’s Thanksgiving Day Parade, increasingly competitive football games, […]

    • Yeah, looking at seasonal snow totals you are right… I just remember it as being underwhelming cause we had a late start (very little snow November/December, but a ton of snow the first half of January) and getting cut short in March from COVID. Wasn’t able to make it up to the slopes during that early January dump but I bet the conditions were epic then. It’s good to hear from you Sam, hope you are doing well.

  • We had the best Halloween weather in 95 years and stunning weather today, and Monday will be another beautiful day with only a few high clouds increasing late in the day. But by Tuesday morning, the first of […]

  • Dry Halloweens are not a slam dunk for the Pacific Northwest. During my trick-or-treating career from 1996-2007 (yes, I trick-or-treated my freshman year of high school… social graces have never been a strong […]

  • The next two weeks look unseasonably calm. We’ll see a moderate system swing through on Friday, but other than that, our weather looks warmer and drier-than-average for the next 10 days as a strong, broad ridge of […]

  • The Pacific Northwest isn’t known for its rapidly changing seasons. We don’t exactly plunge into winter like the Northern Plains, and our slow trudge towards summer out of the depths of January is even slower. […]

  • In my AP European History class back in high school, I remember being astounded by some of the suffixes that the kings and queens had. With a name like Louis XVI, is it any surprise that the French rose up and […]

  • This past Sunday, I went trout fishing on the Yakima River with my dad and brother. The trout were there, but they were sluggish and not particularly enthusiastic about our flies. We didn’t had any hits on dry […]

  • Charlie Phillips wrote a new post on the site Charlie's Weather 6 years ago

    When I was younger, my parents would get me the “Old Farmers Almanac” every year for Christmas. In a time before I knew about dynamical climate models and ensemble-based, bias-corrected seasonal forecasting, the […]

    • Charlie, I don’t really pay much attention to long range forecasts as they rarely seem to be accurate here in Michigan. Last winter was predicted to be brutal for us, and it was just the opposite. This year, they are giving us mixed opinions. Maybe that’s the smartest and safest way to go. Have a great day.

  • Charlie Phillips wrote a new post on the site Charlie's Weather 6 years ago

    More satellite eye-candy today! Take a look below (note – if you are receiving this post via email, you may have to go to the actual post to see the loop).

    One thing that immediately stands out is the […]

  • Charlie Phillips wrote a new post on the site Charlie's Weather 6 years ago

    Today’s weather pattern is a real treat to look at on satellite. We have marginally unstable air moving inland, and this air is just unstable enough to give crustal clear, bluebird skies over the ocean but h […]

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