5:41 PM Wed, Jun 03, 2009 | Permalink
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What do 90° in Seattle, a heat index of 100° in Boston and a heat index of 105° in Chicago have in common?
They all trigger a heat advisory issuance by the National Weather Service, like we had in Western Washington today. (Sea-Tac set a record high of 89°.)
So why the lack of consistency? It has to do with what people are acclimated to in different parts of the country. When it comes to heat, apparently we're weather wimps here in...
5:14 PM Mon, Jun 01, 2009 | Permalink
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Today a national bird protection group called for cat protection groups to give up a popular birth control method.
Trap, neuter, and release, or TNR, is a favorite strategy because it prevents millions of unwanted kitten births and allows fixed cats to live out their days in the wild.
But the American Bird Conservancy (ABC) group says when those cats are released, they eat millions of song birds nationwide.
Both sides have so...
4:03 PM Fri, May 22, 2009 | Permalink
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Federal Fish and Wildlife agents are investigating whether a cow found dead near Twisp is the first victim of the state's newly established wolf pack.
The so-called Lookout Mountain pack moved into Okanogan County several months ago and was first picked up by motion-activated cameras mounted in the woods.
Since then biologists managed to capture and radio-tag two members of the pack which is believed the first to live in Washington...
9:10 PM Mon, May 11, 2009 | Permalink
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They say Mount Rainier makes its own weather, so when the Northwest's highest peak allows the sun to shine on it, you take advantage.
With that in mind, a big group of us planned a Mother's Day hike to Camp Muir (some relation, so I am told). It's a base camp at about 10,000 feet with a few bunk houses where people rest before they make an assault on the 14,411-foot summit. But this would just be a day hike, roughly 9 miles round-trip.
5:22 PM Mon, May 11, 2009 | Permalink
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This just in from The National Oceanic and Atmospheric Administration: blue whales are back.
What is believed to be the largest creature to ever exist on this planet was teetering on the edge of extinction 20 years ago. A whaling ban was credited for a rebound in their population, but the giant mammals abandoned a traditional migratory route up the Pacific from their California breeding grounds.
NOAA now reports the whales have app...
4:54 PM Mon, Apr 20, 2009 | Permalink
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When Seattle hands you a dry weekend in April, you don't look the proverbial gift horse in the mouth -- i.e., you don't quibble about high clouds filtering the sunshine. So on a milky-hued Sunday that promised to head near 70 degrees, I set out to test my conditioning. I went for the steepest hike I know: Mailbox Peak.
...
8:42 PM Wed, Apr 01, 2009 | Permalink
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Apparently the joke is on us.
April Fools all of us, we watched the wet snow fall today in Seattle. And now we have the numbers to support our winter of discontent.
It turns out this was the coldest March in Seattle since 1976, and the seventh coldest on record.
Even more amazingly, the average high temperature here in March was a half-degree colder than in February. In effect, we had two straight months of February.
So...
9:11 PM Tue, Mar 10, 2009 | Permalink
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Today's surge in the stock market notwithstanding, it seems as if there's been precious little positive news lately. So when I found out that a trumpeter swan -- rehabilitated after being injured by poachers -- was going to take wing again, I jumped on the story.
Trumpeter swans are easy to find in Skagit and Whatcom Counties this time of year. Thousands of them winter here; they'll head north to Alaska in the next few weeks.
...
2:35 PM Fri, Mar 06, 2009 | Permalink
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Washington, DC and farming are hardly linked in the popular consciousness, unless you're thinking of the Department of Agriculture. But there's a move afoot to change that. A few months back, the New York Times' Michael Pollan called for the new position of White House farmer. He's not talking about a Cabinet-level job; to him, it seems much more important than that. Pollan posits that food security is part and parcel of national secu...
3:37 PM Thu, Feb 26, 2009 | Permalink
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Probably no forecast is fraught with more peril than the dreaded lowland snow event. It's a four-letter word for most in these parts, and predicting where and how much snow will fall is a daunting task.
Mountains, water, convergence zones and cold-air outflows (among many other factors) make for huge forecasting challenges and great variability over short distances. Plus, since we're next to an enormous moderating influence -- the Pacifi...
3:13 PM Mon, Feb 23, 2009 | Permalink
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I have an implicit understanding with a few of my non-hiking Seattle friends: I try not to proselytize about how they should enjoy the great outdoors more and they don't have to pretend to enjoy the great outdoors, but pity them if they ask how my hike went. That's when I enthusiastically put them to sleep with an involved narrative of my day. Everybody wins. So I was pleasantly surprised when my friend Eric said he wanted to take a hike with ...
10:52 AM Tue, Feb 17, 2009 | Permalink
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With Valentines in the air this weekend, I fell in love all over again. A long-overdue return trip to Whistler sent my heart and skis racing. It was as if someone implanted Colorado weather in the Northwest for a few days; bright sunshine and deep blue skies predominated. Immaculately groomed trails made for perfect "hero snow" conditions: It was easy to look like a pro on the smooth corduroy. Powderhounds were probably wishing for more fresh ...
10:37 AM Fri, Feb 13, 2009 | Permalink
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You don't judge a book by its cover, and you often can't tell the weather in the mountains by what it looks like in Seattle. With that in mind, I set out last Saturday for one of my favorite hikes: Granite Mountain, just off I-90 on the way to Snoqualmie Pass. Seattle was tucked in under its blanket of gray, but it was dry, so I hoped the mountains might stand above the lowland murk. Sure enough, the clouds parted near North Bend, and Mount Si...
4:38 PM Thu, Oct 23, 2008 | Permalink
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I put together a story today that is bound to raise some animal treatment issues.
We visited a Seattle home on Lake Washington where nutria had invaded a boat house on the property.
Nutria are non-native species brought to the U.S. from Argentina back in the 1930s. They look like beavers but have tails that resemble rat tails.
An animal control professional captured three of the nutria and the future for them is grim. Ther...
5:14 PM Wed, Oct 01, 2008 | Permalink
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This week, I produced a rather light piece on the perils of a small community dealing with a large elk herd. I did so to highlight the personalities and issues that are so unique to small towns. (Click here to watch) But the problem does have a serious side and many residents are facing an emotional dilemma.
Some adore the close up wlidlife experience when...
4:51 PM Wed, Sep 03, 2008 | Permalink
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It's old, cold and enormous and now it's floating free in the Arctic Ocean.
Scientists say a 4,500-year-old ice shelf broke off last month surprising scientists and adding fuel to the climate change debate.
The Markham Ice Shelf is 19 square miles in size, about the size of Manhatten, and has now broken cleanly away from Ellesmere Island in Canada's northern Arctic.
Arctic ice shelf specialist Derek Mueller says, "The Markham...
5:46 PM Wed, Aug 13, 2008 | Permalink
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When The National Oceanic and Atmospheric Administation (NOAA) commissioned its new ship this week, it launched the grandest exploration effort this nation has seen since Lewis and Clark.
The crew of the Okeanos Explorer has been ordered to seek out the secrets of the oceans and share them with the nation.
Experts estimate more than 90 percent of the ocean floor is unexplored. They say we have better maps of the surface of Mars tha...
4:56 PM Fri, Jul 04, 2008 | Permalink
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Today, Canadian officials announced the escape of 30,000 salmon from a fish farm in British Columbia. Large escapes like this one set off a wave of concern among fish farming opponants and wildlife biologists.
The sudden influx of non-native, Atlantic salmon can compete with the local salmon species for food. They can also prey on young salmon entering the ocean from Northwest rivers.
Fish Farm groups argue these escapes are rare a...
5:41 PM Thu, Jun 19, 2008 | Permalink
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Briana Waters will not be there to watch her daughter lose her baby teeths. She will not be there to help her tie her first shoe or ride her fist bike. She will not see her daughter's first day in kindergarten, her first day in first, second, or third grades. Briana Waters' daughter will not have her Mom to cuddle through her final days as a toddler or turn to when she experiences the challenges of becoming a girl.
Briana Waters was sent...
6:05 PM Mon, Jun 16, 2008 | Permalink
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Last week a group of seven retired laboratory test animals arrived at a Cle Elum farm where they will live out their days.
The seven chimpanzees spent their lives being poked and prodded in a private research lab back East.
They were part of experiments to find vaccines for diseases, primarily hepatitis B. They endured over a decade of this and lived in small cages, unable to congregate and climb like chimps need to do.
...
5:14 PM Thu, Jun 05, 2008 | Permalink
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I have recently done several stories on new technology and products emerging in the energy sectors. These are responses to rising fuel prices and uncertainty over how we'll power our world in the future.
This week we looked at AFS Trinity, a Bellevue company that developed a plug-in hybrid system it claims can produce mileage in excess of 150 miles per gallon.
These are reputable scientists who have put together a product many top ...
2:20 PM Fri, May 23, 2008 | Permalink
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They call it the "other black gold."
The black market caviar industry is thriving and it is putting an iconic Northwest fish in jeopardy.
Columbia River sturgeon are being poached and sold for big bucks to satisfy wealthy tastes around the region.
Wildlife agents have already busted up a ring involving Russian brokers buying sturgeon illegally from tribal fishermen and putting them on the black market. (Read the full s...
11:13 AM Tue, May 20, 2008 | Permalink
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The neighbor with the hygiene problem forced some residents to pack up and move out.
I'm told that's how some homeowners responded after foul odors started wafting through the neighborhood surrounding the Ocean Protein plant, which opened in 2005.
I caught a good whiff of the intense odor coming from the plant while covering our original story in Hoquiam nearly three years ago. I can understand why it would drive some people out.<...
5:34 PM Wed, Apr 02, 2008 | Permalink
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Seattle Mayor Greg Nickels and other members of the City Council are hoping to sack disposable bags. They have proposed a 20-cent fee for each bag - paper or plastic - that the grocery, drug or convenience store provides you.
If the full council approves it, it would take effect January 1, 2009.
The idea is to rid the city of the disposable bags that require a lot of energy to create and often end up littering the region's roads an...
11:53 AM Wed, Mar 05, 2008 | Permalink
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The answer to that question, according the National Oceanic and Atmospheric Administration (NOAA), is when they become barren of surface sea life. And the agency warns those areas are getting larger.
In a study released today, NOAA announced that "Between 1998 and 2007, these expanses of saltwater with low surface plant life in the Paci...
