Fire season could be nasty

With the strong high pressure ridge off the West Coast, much of the region has been relatively dry. Until recently, it’s been feeling like spring is right around the corner - but winter isn't over yet.

Temperatures are getting colder and we should have lows dropping down into the single digits over the next several mornings.

The late February and early March pattern is still expected to bring more moisture into the Inland Northwest. Snowfall is also likely to increase, but will likely be mixing in with rain, especially in the lower elevations.

After starting off the season with about 50 inches of snow, it’s not going to be easy to get to the 69.8-inch normal by the end of the season.

With the change in the weather pattern, there’s even the possibility of some much-needed rainfall moving southward into California. It was only the middle of February, but a large wildfire already broke out in the mountains in the northern part of the Golden State.

We still have a cooler than normal sea-surface temperature event, La Nina, in the waters of the south-central Pacific Ocean. The phenomenon is showing signs of weakening and scientists believe that we’ll return to the in-between cooler La Nina and warmer El Nino, called La Nada, later in the spring season.

Cliff and I believe that the upcoming spring season will start off a little wetter than normal with seasonable temperatures. Then, like the last 10 years, our summer season will likely turn drier than normal. It looks like we could see another tough fire season later this year. Let’s hope that doesn’t happen.

ROGUE WAVES

Our oceans are vast and mysterious. They account for about 70% of the Earth’s surface. However, only 5% has been explored.

Much of the oceans remain uncharted. Sunlight is unable to penetrate depths beyond 650 feet and pressures in the deep oceans are immense. Waves are common on ocean surfaces, but what about the huge waves in the middle of these vast amounts of water?

Back in December 1972, film producer Irwin Allen released the movie The Poseidon Adventure, which grossed $125 million worldwide. That was a very good number for the early 1970s.

I’ve watched this movie a number of times. In case you haven’t seen it, the story centers around a passenger ship that's capsized by a gigantic tidal wave on New Year’s Eve. The surviving passengers attempt to make their way through a maze of ladders and tunnels to escape the ship.

The movie was inspired by a novel written by Paul Gallico. Amazingly, The Poseidon Adventure was based on an incident that happened aboard the Queen Mary during World War II. The large ship was transporting American troops to Europe when it was struck by a large “freak wave” in the North Atlantic.

Very large ocean waves are called “rogue waves” and were thought to be more of a myth than reality. However, recent sightings have drastically changed that perspective as a huge rogue wave was recently spotted off the coast of British Columbia.

According to a study published in early February from the journal Scientific Reports, in November of 2020, there was an incredible 58-foot-tall wave that struck off the coast of Ucluelet on Vancouver Island. It was verified by an ocean buoy that belonged to a Canadian research company.

It’s estimated that the rogue wave was as high as a four-story building and it was the largest ever reported. There have been very few sightings like the one in November 2020, and according to research scientists at the University of Victoria, it’s estimated that these types of events occur only about once every 1,000 years.

The first rogue wave ever recorded was off the coast of Norway in 1995. That one was 84 feet high, much taller than the one near Vancouver Island. However, the wave in 2020 was record-breaking as it was much higher than the waves surrounding it.

Rogue waves also hit a cruise ship in the Mediterranean in March of 2010. The waves blew out many windows. People were knocked over as no one can stand up to the force of that much rushing water.

Rogue waves are often more than twice as large as other waves in the area. Most of the waves on the ocean are generated by winds or other storms.

Sometimes, storms in the ocean are producing waves that can interfere with each other, but usually don't form monster waves. However, on rare occasions, if at least three larger waves from different sources come together, it’s possible that a massive rogue wave can be generated in the middle of the ocean.

Rogue waves are extremely rare due to very few sightings. But, many ships travel the oceans across the world. Hundreds of them have disappeared without any explanation; some believe they may have been the victims of these waves.