Daniel Swain's Weather West
weatherwest.com · Personal blog · on HN since 2014
Daniel Swain, a climate scientist, writes in-depth analysis of California weather, drought, atmospheric rivers, and climate change.
What HN saysHN commenters recommend it as a science blog with detailed explanations of California weather, and cite it during major storms and wildfire discussions.
18HN people shared it
9linked it in comments
22stories submitted
195story points
2 years agolast shared
2014people per year2026
Most-shared posts
- 1Homepage4 people · first shared 2021
- 2Increasing precipitation whiplash in twenty-first century California2 people · 5 points · first shared 2018 · discussion on HN
- 3ARkStorm 2.0: Climate change is increasing the risk of a California megaflood2 people · 2 points · first shared 2022 · discussion on HN
- 4Ridiculously resilient ridge2 people · first shared 2014
- 5The Extraordinary California Drought of 2013-20141 people · 96 points · first shared 2014 · 67 comments on HN
- 6Near-record strength El Niño still on track to bring a wet California winter1 people · 66 points · first shared 2015 · 16 comments on HN
- 7The southern California fire event was accurately forecast on Jan 41 people · 4 points · first shared 2025 · discussion on HN
- 8Trend toward re-intensifying drought in western USA continues1 people · 2 points · first shared 2022 · discussion on HN
- 9Dangerously intense, prolonged, and humid heatwave for most of California1 people · 2 points · first shared 2020 · discussion on HN
- 10Atmospheric river to bring heavy rain to Northern California this weekend1 people · 2 points · first shared 2014 · discussion on HN
- 11The Ridiculously Resilient Ridge continues; California drought intensifies1 people · 2 points · first shared 2014 · discussion on HN
- 12New Insights into the Ridiculously Resilient Ridge: Why California Is So Dry1 people · 2 points · first shared 2017 · discussion on HN
- 13Potentially historic summer storm event to unfold in SoCal this weekend1 people · 2 points · first shared 2023 · discussion on HN
- 14Rapidly Strengthening Pacific Storm1 people · 2 points · first shared 2024 · discussion on HN
- 15Record heat, unprecedented lightning fire siege in Northern California1 people · 2 points · first shared 2020 · discussion on HN
What HN people wrote when they linked it
barathr · 2023-08-20
This storm is going to be catastrophic for desert areas but probably just merely bad for the more coastal populated areas. Anyone in inland SoCal should be getting ready for rain unprecedented as far back as records go (150-200 years).
btw, Weather West is always the best place to go for California weather -- there's nobody better on this than climate scientist Daniel Swain: https://weatherwest.com/
thangalin · 2025-01-09
https://agupubs.onlinelibrary.wiley.com/doi/full/10.1029/2021gl092843
'California has experienced increasingly severe autumn wildfires over the past several decades, which have exacted a rising human and environmental toll. Recent fire and climate science research has demonstrated a clear link between worsening California wildfires and climate change, mainly though the vegetation-drying effect of rising temperatures and shifting precipitation seasonality.'
https://weatherwest.com/
'Thus, the wildfire risk across much of SoCal will be even greater than the sum of its parts (i.e., the strong winds or dry fuels individually). This is an increasingly prominent concern, as has been previously discussed, with increasing overlap between “offshore wind season” and “critically dry vegetation season” in California---and is something that is expected to happen more often with climate change (especially in Southern California).'
_fs · 2021-05-27
https://www.dcrainmaker.com/ - DCRainmaker is THE run/bike/swim tech reviewer. Extremely in depth reviews with lots of pictures of any and every major tech device that hits the fitness world.
https://weatherwest.com/ - In depth explanations of mostly California weather phenomena and medium term predictions.
anigbrowl · 2014-08-20
It's worth noting that there's going to be a water bond measure on California's ballot this November: http://www.washingtonpost.com/blogs/govbeat/wp/2014/08/14/california-w…
This is a ~$7 billion bond, although estimated total investment needs over the next 20 years are about 10x that mount so there will doubtless be other proposals.
The drought affects the whole SouthWestern US, but since many HN readers are based in California, Wikipedia's article on the state's water infrastructure may be quite useful: http://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Water_in_California
If you're interested in the causes of the drought and trying to predict its future course, read up on the Ridiculously Resilient Ridge, a new and unwelcome fixture int he Pacific weather system: http://www.weatherwest.com/archives/tag/ridiculously-resilient-ridge
mistrial9 · 2022-05-30
Science blog on related topics https://weatherwest.com/
1970-01-01 · 2023-01-05
An actual link would be good:
https://weatherwest.com/archives/22404
dendrite9 · 2023-01-03
I thought about the ARkStorm prediction when I saw the forecast. https://weatherwest.com/archives/16626
cbsks · 2021-11-16
According to this meteorologist “Drier-than-average winter still most likely outcome for most of California” https://weatherwest.com/archives/11748
ChuckMcM · 2015-06-24
What's happening to all of the Earth's water?
It is circulating differently. The most impact on the cascades are changes in the Pacific currents, for a while those currents have facilitated the existence of the "Ridiculously Resilient Ridge"[1] as water temperature differentials drive changes in pressure zones above them. Without the more typical Pacific current moderating the high pressure ridges along the coast, low pressure systems which would bring condensation (clouds and rain) have been absent.
That said, if Texas is any indication, and we get the same effects we saw in 1983, we're going to have a lot of moisture in the Cascades this year.
[1] http://www.weatherwest.com/archives/tag/ridiculously-resilient-ridge