Mike the Meteorologist

06/17/2026

Beautiful night sky tonight. It's neat to see the crescent moon 🌙 with Venus, Jupiter, and Mercury.

06/10/2026

This is where my family is from. What a brutal natural disaster.

Today in history 🗓
9 June 1972: With up to 15 inches of rain falling in ten hours in South Dakota’s Black Hills, the Canyon Lake Dam failed, resulting in the “Rapid City Flood” that killed 238 people.

Photo credit 📷: NOAA

05/31/2026

It's a "blue moon" out there tonight! It's the second full moon of the month. The moon is also the smallest moon of the year, because it's at an apogee in its orbit, so it's the farthest away from Earth as it gets.

03/20/2026

Vernal equinox today! Spring Equinox 2026: Date & Exact Time (UTC) | First Day of Spring

When does spring begin in 2026? Why aren’t day and night truly equal on the vernal equinox? And why doesn’t it always fall on the same date? Find out here!

03/17/2026

Eugene set a record high yesterday! We hit 78F which was 4 degrees above the record. Oddly, Eugene was pretty much the warmest place in Oregon. It stayed in the 60s in Portland. Also was weird that the forecast only called for a high in Eugene of 71.

03/12/2026

Current and upcoming weather in the CONUS is wild! Record high temperatures around Virginia near 29C (84F) yesterday were replaced by cold air, and snow fell there today. In the Pacific NW, An atmospheric river has been feeding a lot of moisture, with blizzard conditions in the Washington Cascades. A major winter storm will affect the Great Lakes area too. But the big story coming up is the absurd heat that will develop in much of the West this weekend into next week. A super strong High Pressure system will develop. It will feel like the middle of Summer in many places, with temperatures over 39C (102F) in the desert Southwest, and even approaching 32C(90F) in Denver! We are technically still in Winter. Many places will have their all-time record March temperatures.

03/03/2026

Total lunar eclipse tonight! Increasing clouds forecasted in the Pacific Northwest unfortunately, but if you're up at 3:30am, check it out.

02/23/2026

New York City has been issued a rare blizzard warning tonight. This has been one of the most intense winters NYC has had in many years. They're expected to receive over a foot of snow. But it isn't the amount of snow that meets the criteria for a blizzard. A blizzard is more about whiteout conditions that last for a while. In particular, a blizzard in the USA is defined as a winter storm with sustained winds or frequent gusts over 35 mph with visibilities less than 1/4 mile for at least 3 hours. This could be an intense few days for them as this "Nor'easter" moves through. A Nor'easter is a strong cyclonic storm that forms off the East Coast when cold air collides from the north with the relatively mild air over the Atlantic Ocean. The gulf stream is a warm current that moves northward, so sea surface temperatures stay fairly mild there, so air temperatures stay fairly mild all Winter too. The name "Nor'easter" is given because of the strong cold winds that reach land from the Northeast.

02/07/2026

Here in Oregon, after an entire week of mild sunny Spring-like weather, the ridge of high pressure in the western USA will finally shift east. Tomorrow we'll return to cooler wet weather. There should be a decent amount of rain tomorrow eve into Sunday. It's looking dry again mid week, but the jet stream is looking more normal with a progressive pattern again.

02/03/2026

Today is the highly scientific Groundhog Day! It marks the halfway point between the Winter Solstice and the Spring Equinox. There are many climate forecasting rodents in the USA and Canada, but Punxsutawney Phil is the most well-known. Today, it was a sunny day for Phil, so it saw its shadow. Supposedly, this means six more weeks of winter. For those in Pennsylvania, that isn't good news, because it has been very cold out there. It's weird for us in the West, because it hasn't really been winter. How accurate has the groundhog been? Overall, they say he's been about 50% accurate. In the past ten years, he's only been right 3 years. How did this silliness get started? Ancient Celts used to celebrate this day of what was their first day of Spring, and they called it Imbolc. They would look for animals such as badgers or bears coming out of hibernation. Christians turned this pagan celebration into something called Candlemas. They would look for animals as well, but they settled for rodents. Supposedly, if it was sunny, rodents would return to their dens, because it signaled there were still about six more weeks of winter ahead. This likely has to do with arctic air being associated with clear skies. When German immigrants came to the Pennsylvania region around the 1800s, they brought this tradition with them. Eventually, in 1887, Punxsutawney's first official Groundhog Day celebration took place. Supposedly, the same groundhog has been doing it ever since; it never ages, because it's served an "elixir of life."