Tagged: Weather forecasting

Just one day of glory is all we get, says KPLU weather expert Cliff Mass. The clouds roll in tonight, at least around most of western Washington, followed by periods of rain tomorrow.

The sun will still be shining over Portland on Saturday, and east of the Cascades, says Mass, a UW professor of Atmospheric Sciences.

The changes are all typical of June, he says, and by the middle of next week, we'll likely flip back to a few days of sunshine.

This week's interview also covers how to "read" the clouds and tell if rain is on the way.

"It was like Palm Springs around much of the Northwest" recently, says KPLU's weather man, Cliff Mass. But that will be shifting soon. 

"Unfortunately, we're about to make a major shift into a much rainier pattern - a much more normal pattern."

It may be drying out this weekend and into next week ... but this past week brought some serious rain.

Cliff Mass, a professor of atmospheric sciences at the University of Washington and KPLU’s new weather commentator, says it was Carl Sagan who first inspired him to get out into the public to popularize the science behind weather forecasting.

“I was an undergraduate at Cornell and in those days he was really into popularizing science. He was on the Tonight Show, and he was writing very popular books and a lot of that rubbed off,” Mass told KPLU.

Check out the video above for our complete interview with Cliff Mass.