We have just hired a new weather person here at KPTV/KPDX. Stephanie Ortmann will be leaving at the end of this month…Brian MacMillan will start soon after. I can verify for all you weather geeks out there that, like Stephanie Ortmann, Brian is a big weather nut. When he asked out of the blue “do you have BUFKIT here?” I knew things were going to go well. He grew up in Lynnwood, a Seattle suburb. It’s always great to get someone on staff who truly gets wound up about a good thunderstorm outbreak or windstorm, like most of you here. He’s also relatively young (everyone new is younger than me nowdays!) and full of fresh ideas and energy. Here is a link to an article about him:
http://oregonmediacentral.com/2009/08/kohd-bends-brian-macmillan-replaces-stephanie-ortmann-at-kptv
Chief Meteorologist – Mark Nelsen
FRIDAY UPDATE: Brian has posted a few thoughts down below in the comments, just after 7pm Thursday evening.
FOX 12 Weather Blog 
It may be just Timmy and Tetra posting comments, but I’ve been following along all day. It’s fun to watch your predictions for next week from each satellite loop, watch the T-storms move across the mountains and key into the links. It’s odd that the NOAA has a much lower 7-day than Mark. I remain behind the scenes enjoying the repartee because you have the expert weather geekiness.
We do have the expert weather geekiness on this blog! And thats what KPTV is for, unlike Western Weather where all you see is rude and sarcastic people…. And no one wants to answer Tetra’s questions, poor guy… I will never join that blog. Anyways….
I cannot wait for our storms mid-week, this next low however doesn’t look as pronounced and strong as the ULL early this month, but I think this one just might be the one to bring us storms. I’m not bringing too much hope to it, because this low might deviate directions any time.
Since June, GFS hasn’t been too trust-worthy as far as thunderstorms go.
Maybe in the 40s for Silverton! :LOL: 65F here and mostly clear. Dew point 46F so temp will fall fast I believe.
Looks like this is the *Tetra* and *Timmy* blog for tonite?
Yep Tetra, got that right!
This is the “Supercell of Eternity” blog!
Maybe in the 40s for Silverton! :LOL: 65F here and mostly clear. Dew point 46F so temp will fall fast I believe.
Looks like this is the *Tetra* and *Timmy* blog for tonite? Tetraimmy blog?
Things are rapidly clearing here. Should be a chilly evening. Perhaps into the 40s for most areas?
Sixty seven point one here! 67.1F and mostly clear with a NE wind.
detroit lake camping
rainy nights cool cloudy daze
forest still bone dry
….and Howdy to the new guy!!!
Double Posting. Posted this earlier but if Brian doesn’t want to go back that far, just reposted here.
Hey Brian!!! Welcome! I grew up in and out of Bend as my whole family grew up there, I can tell you the storms there were what got me into weather realllly young with HUGE snows and Massive Nocturnal Tstorms up at East lake and Wickiup Res…lot of childhood memories there!
Hope you can keep up with us, it will get REAL crazy on here come 2009 windstorm and the 09/10 Arctic Outbreak that spans 4 weeks below freezing, hahahaha, RIGHT?! Will be interesting to hear where your expertise focus and if you like to follow longer range forecasting ie, nino’s, sst’s, PDO, and analogs!
Again, welcome, look forward to hearing more from ya soon!
I’ve never understood what an analogue exactly is can someone explain it and explain if they are any good or just more *garbage in garbage out?
It’s 71.1F out and mostly cloudy here.
*makes Tea for Brian and drives in the unoffical KPTV weather van over to Bend Oregon but doesn’t know wher Brian lives so Tetra drives around and around* 😦
By the way Brian if you ever hear of a place called Western Weather Forums don’t be tempted to discuss things there as you will either get ignored or your thead will get hijacked with provoke responses.
Instead head on over to the Fab 5 chatroom which gets activity when intresting weather happens. 😉
messin around with the NWS/google interactive maps…
@13,000 feet on mt. rainier…
today: HI- 24 LO- 19
tuesday: HI- 58 LO- 38
I’m with Aloha on that one. :o. It gives such uneeded strees to take one model reading to the extreme and I know what that’s like.
Well, the 12z is looking a lot better, some high 90’s! I think 06z was just going wack, because every other run showed higher temps.
Best thing to do with models is wait until the end of the day and take into account all 4 gfs runs and the euro. Look at trends on both and then compare what each is spitting out. If you model ride every GFS run, you’ll give yourself a Myocardial Infarction!
Crazy I tell ya! Crazy!
No more bacon sizzlers… Bring on October. 🙂
18Z agains shows heat…..all 4 are showing a big warming trend……Will probably end up in the low/mid 90’s..
Cool 64.7F here….
Be back later.
ok
The difference between temps on the 00z and 06z text is just rediculous, I honestly don’t like the 06z.
Well, that sounds cool!
? Chances of outbreak ?
Oops, this was a reply to Rob…
Sorry that should be Thursday-Friday morning. Then the heat breaks very quickly as the vort max ejects NNE through Washington and a marine push blasts inland following this.
A marine blast huh…….
? Storms ?
Yup… Vort max moves right overhead with a possible t-storm outbreak, and as usual as that moves just north/northeast of PDX marine air floods in behind it.
Wooot! NICE t-storm pattern Wednesday-Thursday!
http://www.nco.ncep.noaa.gov/pmb/nwprod/analysis/namer
Ahhhh I totally botched the links. Also you cannot post more than 2 or 3 or less WordPress won’t let you post.
12z GFS is running now…. I hope it’s colder, but so far that ridge developing looks like it *could* have some teeth to it.. Hopefully baby teeth and it proves to be transitory with the axis inland…..
Brian — wishing you a “wicked good” send off! You were a great co-worker and buddy here at KOHD to start things off right, so I wish you great luck in Portland.
Good morning all
06z GFS is cooler.. No 100’s 🙂 ….
Max temp Monday-Friday is only 92!
We can hope this is a trend, because I’m done with hot weather, a hot house, and uncomfortable sleeping weather. UNLESS it led to a massive t-storm outbreak, which it won’t… sooo…. c’mon cold air ! 😀
Hopefully the 06Z holds true!
I’m more than done with the upper 90’s and 100’s.
Welcome to the blog Brian. Would you like coffee or some Tea in the virtual kitchen to the right?
Thanks Tetra, I would love some. I’ll have it iced though. Even though it’s a bit cooler right now, I like staying in the spirit of summer.
The showers are gone, but Bend will be cool today. Highs will drop to the low-70s here. Our overnight lows dipping in to the mid-30s. The High Desert will warm up this weekend back to the 80s and we’ll be back into the 90s next week.
Thanks to everyone for your encouragement and well wishes!
Nice to see you post, Brian. You’re welcome and I look forward to future discussions.
Welcome to the blog!
Nice to have you here. See, you have “fans” already!
Yep, big fan of him already, hes cool!
Welcome, Brian.
Sorry, Steph O.
Tetra, take some sound advice from me… Western Weather Forum isn’t worth it, and yeah there is a clique of people there and they will often ignore others posts continuing to carry on, or hijack other threads with nonsense. I wouldn’t sweat it or even bother with them.
Oh whoops! I replied to the wrong post! Oh well..
Darn. [url=http://www.smileyhut.com][IMG]http://www.smileyhut.com/naughty/axe.gif[/IMG][/url]
*Axe on Tetra which came somewhere from Western Forum*
64.4F here and mostly cloudy.
I have to say is that it seems when I ask any *serious* weather questions at Western Weather I get ignored or maybe 2 people reply maximum while the topics that seem to provoke people get all the attention.
Welcome to KPTV Brian! Hope to see you post here soon….
Damp 60.7F currently here….Few showers around…0.01″ rain so far
18Z continues where the 12Z left us…..hot….
66.7F after a high around 70F ish though I know not the exact number.
Who’s ready for more haze and smog city? Don’t you just LOVE all the smoke from the farmers fields burning and all the allergies making you sneeze?
It sure aint summer unless you have a realllllllly bad hazy day. 😉
Anybody up to melted smoothies in a handful of days?
Looking forward to this heat wave coming up. This weather has been making me a little depressed. Reminds me of a drier April.
Nice structure on the cell moving towards Gresham. It’s about right overhead of my house.
Don’t see much reflectivity action as much as yesterday. Did any of the storms go near 60 dBZ today so far?
I had some tiny hail with that one over my area.
I’m not sure…. I don’t believe we had any “storms” per say in the area today. Lightning detections shows nothing and instability didn’t look favorable. Strong showers yeah, hail possibly….
Southern Puget Sound had fun though!
Jeez not fair…. That ULL just didn’t slide far enough south to give us favorable dynamics as they had further north.
There goes Washington…. Not surprised.
😦
Currently 63°F and “spitting”….
The brisket’s going on the smoker in 45 minutes….raining or not………
Hi Everybody!
Thanks for the warm welcome. I think it is great that Mark has created this blog for all of us to geek out on. I will definitely be taking part in the discussion as I get settled in.
I’ve had the opportunity and challenge of forecasting in Bend. We’ve been through some incredible weather events during my time here. A couple of weekends ago, we had some very strong thunderstorm cells pass through. It was one of the most energy packed storms I’ve seen in a very long time. 2400 lightning strikes in 2 1/2 hours! Great stuff!!!
I’m excited to get back to the west side of the mountains. I’ll be starting early next month, and I’m looking forward to getting to know you all!
Great to have you along Brian
Hey Brian!!! Welcome! I grew up in and out of Bend as my whole family grew up there, I can tell you the storms there were what got me into weather realllly young with HUGE snows and Massive Nocturnal Tstorms up at East lake and Wickiup Res…lot of childhood memories there!
Hope you can keep up with us, it will get REAL crazy on here come 2009 windstorm and the 09/10 Arctic Outbreak that spans 4 weeks below freezing, hahahaha, RIGHT?! Will be interesting to hear where your expertise focus and if you like to follow longer range forecasting ie, nino’s, sst’s, PDO, and analogs!
Again, welcome, look forward to hearing more from ya soon!
Radar trends show some light/moderate showers moving about through the PDX/VUO metro areas. Nothing too strong as instability is very weak with CAPE values around 100-200J/kg and LI around zero over NW Oregon and PDX/VUO metro areas. WV Loop shows the cold ULL over northern Washington with the southern periphery nosing down over NW Oregon. 500mb temps are a chilly -18c to -20c over NW Oregon and colder across western Washington. With that being said I do suppose a brief heavy downpour or maybe a clap of thunder being remotely possible before 9 PM, but I doubt that.
Mark, thanks for the update, and welcome Brian to Fox12. It would be very cool if Brian chimed in during weather events.
Real nice day today temps near 70 and no humidity!
12z GFS ridge looks much better in orientation and position, also stronger more favorable axis, but also is transitory meaning no prolonged 100+temperature heat wave. Perhaps 1 or 2 100+ days, then a few 90+.
…..my pooooor, pooooor blender……..
😉
Welcome Brian! hope you get to post here soon. Think you will love meeting all the geeks on the blog :0)
no rumbles with that shower that just passed over Longview/Kelso…nothing showing up on KPTVs lightning pages…that cell around scappoose/N. Vancouver looks pretty intense, but i think thats about it…no thunder and lightning, just downpours.
Greetings Brian MacMillan!!
Oh my would you take a look at this:
18z temperatures have us PDX posted at 104F on Wednesday…
http://wxweb.meteostar.com/sample/sample.shtml?text=KPDX#
Been saving some of these meteograms as this new potential heat wave approaches.
Yep…saw that….. Looks like I’ll have to drag my blender back out of the cupboard……..
😦 Now….. T-storms would make it worth it to me…. 😉
I wouldn’t put much thought into that Timmy. It is the 18z which one of the, if not the, worst run of the day. Just a little fyi.
That looks cool, would love to see him on KPTV sometime.
Mark, afraid to say this, but your aging! 🙂 lol
Kinda bummed Mark. You did promise me the job after all…
LOL, Mark, you still look younger, no worries.
Thanks for the introduction, you should have him post first day, kind of like an initiation!!!
SLAYER!!!!