Fieldwork the past two days has consisted of running from building to vehicle and vice versa. The weather has been a classic Pineapple Express pattern, where the jetstream brings a river of warm moist subtropical air the the Pacific Northwest. Freezing levels rise, temperatures soar toward the 50s, and rain comes down in biblical amounts. Snow melts, streams and rivers run chocolate brown and turbulent. Daylight never quite penetrates the clouds. The world is wet. I imagine going out to space and looking back at our blue world. It’s a water planet, after all.

My favorite weather guru is Cliff Mass, who teaches meteorology at the University of Washington. I enjoy his weather blog, even though I usually skip over all the analytical charts and models…