Dust
There it is, obscuring my view of the Wasatch.
America's Rainiest City?
Ketchikan, Alaska is known for two things: salmon and rain. I know this well as I have been here several times visiting family. The combination of wind and rain often makes it feel like you are living in a car wash. Ketchikan, which is located on the inland passage in southeast Alaska, has fully embraced it's status at the Rain City . It proudly displays a "liquid sunshine gauge" on the boat dock showing just how wet it is. A closeup shows that they claim an average rainfall of 12.5 ft (150") per year. That's a lot of rain and, perhaps not surprisingly, Ketchikan is widely promoted as the rainiest city in America (e.g., destimationalaska.com ). Being a meteorologist, I began to wonder if this was really the case. There are the usual challenges in evaluating such a claim. What is meant by a city? What is the period of record? Is the data reliable? Etc... For the purposes of this post, we'll concentrate on clima...
You got any fodder for the powder hounds about this weekend's storm?
ReplyDeleteYeah, silence implies uncertainty about what to say! This is yet another digging trough going down into Arizona where we have to hope we get in on the action instead of getting the shaft as has happened frequently this year. It's too soon to commit to a particular forecast outcome. As usual, there's a wide range of possibilities, so hope for the best.
DeleteGotcha. Some of the other "forecasters" are hyping this storm up. You thinking it may be a total bust?
ReplyDeleteNo. I'm saying there are a wide range of possibilities. We're dealing with a medium range forecast here - much of the storm period is 3.5-6 days away. Some level of sobriety is needed for such forecast lead times.
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