Thanks to a study led by Julian Sachs, a UW associate professor of oceanography, scientists tracked rainfall from 1400 to 1850 at four Pacific islands, and found, in scientific-ese: "that the Pacific intertropical convergence zone was south of its modern position for most of the past millennium, by as much as 500 km during the Little Ice Age." more ›

Seattle weather guru Cliff Mass has some unsettling news: May 20 to June 30 was the driest such period in the 116-year history of Seattle weather-record-keeping. Seattle got a mere .18 inches of rain--not enough to chase a whiskey--deblitermashing the previous record by a full .1 inch! Suck it, 1934. more ›

With the return of the dreaded S-word juxtaposed with some of the most beautiful sunshine we've seen in months, the Northwest is feeling a bit punchy. In that spirit, Josh Feit at Publicola takes on Seattle's odd political climate ("green urbanists" vs. "economic populists"). It's a wonder we get any political dialogue accomplished at all, given how sore people are--still!--over the infamous Seahawks in the Superbowl referee fiasco. Pouring salt on the open wound, the owner of the Pittsburgh Steelers wrote a letter explaining precisely how fair that referee was. After reading the letter on the Daily Weekly, you might feel a little punchy yourself and need to scream about it. Just let it out, you'll feel better. If yelling doesn't help, have you considered turning to alcohol? Some tequila from Sammamish, perhaps? The Issaquah Reporter has the story (via GreenerGrad). more ›