Researchers from both universities embark on a three-year project to better predict and cope with changing atmospheric patterns
New normal isn’t normal: Years of drought have parched forests and lands in the Pacific Northwest and primed them to burn. Photo: Caleb Strough//BLM
By Joe Raineri, KGW News, July 14, 2022. Over the last couple of years, the Pacific Northwest has seen an increasing number of extreme weather events.
From the megafires of 2020, to the hottest temperature ever recorded at Portland International Airport last summer: a high of 116 degrees on June 28, 2021.
Researchers with Portland State University and Washington State University Vancouver are looking into the factors that cause those extremes, including a weather pattern called an atmospheric ridge.
Paul Loikith is an associate professor of geography and the director of Portland State University’s Climate Science Lab. He has teamed up with Deepti Singh, an assistant professor for the School of the Environment at Washington State University Vancouver. Together, they’re studying atmospheric ridge patterns and the impact they have on our weather.
Atmospheric ridges, or high pressure systems, bring in calmer weather and are associated with drier and sunny conditions. They can also be responsible for heat waves during summer.
Loikith said they’re using a combination of historical data going back to the late 1970s and computer models to better understand the reason behind some of the strong ridges.
“We want to find out what are the drivers of ridges, and potentially, how can we predict those when we want to manage extreme events. What we want to know is the predictability,” said Singh.
Loikith and Singh want to understand the factors contributing to warmer summers over the last few years. One thing they plan on paying close attention to are sea surface temperatures.
“There are relationships between our circulation and what’s going on in the central tropical Pacific, so El Nino and La Nina events can influence the circulation,” said Loikith.
The three-year project just started between Portland State University and Washington State University Vancouver, thanks in part to a federal grant from the National Science Foundation.
