News and Opinion from Sisters, Oregon
News and Opinion from Sisters, Oregon
Sorted by date Results 51 - 69 of 69
The wildfire that started on Sunday morning, September 9, near the Pole Creek Trailhead southwest of Sisters tripled in size from Friday afternoon, September 14, to late Saturday evening. By press time the area of burn was estimated to have grown to approximately 17,500 acres. Fire officials blame "active weather" Friday afternoon into early Saturday for the fire's rapid spread. Pole Creek Fire Incident Meteorologist Jon Bonk explained that lower relative humidity and gusty winds associated with a passing heat low Friday... Full story
Of the 88 constellations that encompass the celestial sphere, 10 of them represent some form of aquatic creature. Most of us are somewhat familiar with three of them because they belong to the group of zodiac constellations: Cancer the crab, Capricornus the sea goat, and Pisces the fishes. The remaining seven stellar water animals are far less commonly known. It turns out, however, that September is a good month to view the smallest of them. Depicted as a dolphin, Delphinus is... Full story
A number of years have elapsed since Northern Hemisphere-sky watchers have been treated to a bright naked-eye comet. Many of us will remember comet Hale-Bopp that adorned our skies for several weeks during the spring of 1997. The comet was a dazzling sight, even from the light-polluted skies of large cities. It was probably the most widely observed comet of the 20th century. Discovered independently by Alan Hale and Thomas Bopp, the comet never really got close to Earth, but... Full story
Two weeks ago winter made a noticeable, but brief, appearance in Central Oregon. Some snow and a soaking rain fell at lower elevations, while the mountains received a generous snowpack. Over the past few days, however, the weather has become less active, and it looks like that trend will continue for the foreseeable future. From late November through mid-January, a blocking ridge in the upper atmosphere over the U.S. West Coast was effective in keeping Pacific storms... Full story
This fall's edition of the Oregon Chapter of the American Meteorological Society's Winter Weather Meeting is now history. But instead of information that sounded fresh and new, the message was pretty much the same as last year: the Pacific Northwest appears to be headed for another cool and wet winter. On October 29 an overflow crowd of weather aficionados converged on the Oregon Museum of Science and Industry in Portland to hear what regional weather experts had to say about... Full story
Approximately 23 million years ago, in a galaxy not too terribly far away, a massive star blew itself apart and its light is just now reaching the earth. And a handful of local amateur astronomers are witnesses to the celestial catastrophe. The exploding star, called supernova 2011dh, was discovered on June 2 by French astronomer Amédée Riou. It is located in the famous Whirlpool galaxy, which resides near the handle of the Big Dipper. Although the brightness of the... Full story
Early last fall weather forecasters across the region were eyeing changes that were taking place in the tropical Pacific Ocean. A strengthening easterly trade wind was pushing warm surface water westward, allowing colder and deeper water to rise to the surface in eastern sections of the Pacific. A potent La Niña was brewing that local meteorologists and climatologists believed would impact our upcoming winter. At the American Meteorological Society's winter weather meetin... Full story
As the summer of 2010 was winding down and transitioning into fall, all the usual indicators seemed to be pointing in the same direction: a potent La Niña winter was on the way. Weather prognosticators quickly spread the news. Ski resort operators throughout the region brimmed with optimism at the prospect of plenty of mountain snow. And the spring and summer runoff from a large snowpack would provide ample capacity for generating hydroelectric power and keep irrigation... Full story
Last fall, before an attentive audience at the Oregon Museum of Science and Industry in Portland, four weather and climate specialists talked about the kind of weather we might expect here in the Pacific Northwest for the upcoming winter season. They were Kyle Dittmer of the Columbia River Intertribal Fish Commission, Pete Parsons of the Oregon Department of Agriculture, George Taylor of Applied Climate Services, and Tyree Wilde of the National Weather Service. A central theme... Full story
Most of the holidays and observances we celebrate here in America are pretty easy to remember and can be classified, somewhat arbitrarily, into two groups. First, there are the events that occur on the same date of the same month, but on different days of the week, every year. Examples are New Year's Day, Valentine's Day, Independence Day, Halloween, Veterans Day and Christmas. There's another set of holidays that fall on the same day of the week of a particular month, but the dates are different from year to year. You are fa... Full story
There's an old saying that goes, "everybody talks about the weather, but nobody ever does anything about it." Well, that can't be said of Sandy Sharp. She records it. Sharp works at the Sisters Ranger District office and, as a member of the Cooperative Observer Program (COOP), is responsible for taking daily weather measurements. An information assistant by title, Sharp begins each workday by raising our nation's flag on a nearby pole. At that time she estimates wind speed by... Full story
Many of us may remember a claim from early last summer that the planet Mars and Earth would come within close proximity to each other by August. The story was sensationalized by suggesting that at closest approach Mars may appear as large as the moon. Shocking as it may seem (it was on the Internet; how could it not be true?), the event didn't happen! Not only did Mars not show prominently, it was completely absent from the evening sky, instead being very far from Earth and... Full story
It's a sight many of us have experienced. The sun has long-since disappeared below the western horizon as clear skies reveal the first stars of the evening. With an upward glance, you pause for a moment to notice the deepening shades of color in the sky as encroaching darkness signals the end of another day. Suddenly, your reverie is broken by a streak of light that darts across the sky, perhaps lasting only a second or two. In all likelihood, you have just witnessed a... Full story
This is the time of year when everyone's thoughts turn to one looming question: what kind of winter will it be? On Saturday, October 17, the Oregon Museum of Science and Industry in Portland played host to the Oregon Chapter of the American Meteorological Society's 17th annual Winter Weather Meeting, where weather aficionados of all stripes strove to find an answer to that question. Four speakers shared their thoughts about how the 2009-2010 winter will play out here in the Pacific Northwest. These prognosticators were Kyle... Full story
Did summer here in Central Oregon seem somewhat abbreviated to you? If so, you're not alone. Weather data collected at the Sisters Ranger District clearly shows that this was indeed the case. June was cool and wet until the last week of the month, when summer finally decided to make its appearance. Once on the scene, however, it turned out be of high quality. The warm, sunny and dry weather we are so accustomed to here held strong through July, August and almost all of... Full story
A popular American folk song from the early 1960s begins with the lyrics, "Where have all the flowers gone, long time passing, Where have all the flowers gone, long time ago...?" etc., etc. Well, solar scientists are singing a similar tune these days; only the words might go something like this: "Where have all the sunspots gone, long time ago...?" The sun has no spots these days, and that simply should not be the case. Sunspots are the result of intense magnetic storms that... Full story
Recently I received an e-mail from my good friend Jim Anderson, asking if the information contained in an attached file had any validity. So I opened it up to take a look and immediately reacted with, "oh no, it's back!" "It" was the Mars story that won't die. I'm very confident that many of you have also run across this item, or a similar version, at least once (maybe multiple times) over the past few years. This latest story that Anderson forwarded on to me begins by... Full story
Predicting the weather is a tricky business. Just trying to figure out how the atmosphere will behave two or three days out is sometimes fraught with uncertainty. Imagine, then, anyone so bold as to peer far beyond the normal forecasting horizon-say a month or even a season into the future. Yet, such was the case when a group of meteorologists and climatologists gathered together on Friday October 24, at the Oregon Museum of Science and Industry in Portland. The event was the... Full story
The world recently celebrated the 50th anniversary of one of the most significant achievements in the history of mankind. On October 4, 1957, the Soviet Union launched into orbit Earth's first artificial satellite and ushered in the space age. The tiny moonlet was dubbed Sputnik 1, Russian for traveling companion or satellite, and its very existence would change the world forever. The military applications of the accomplishment were recognized immediately. A rocket powerful enough to place an object into orbit around the... Full story
