Joe Boomgard-Zagrodnik

@joeboomzag.bsky.social

1981 Followers 206 Following

Pacific Northwest weather/climate forecasts. Website: theconvergencezone.com

Some personal news --

I'm moving to San Diego next month!

It was an amazing 13 years in Seattle, I went from knowing nothing about the PNW to getting my PhD at UW and becoming a regional weather expert. Along the way I met my superstar wife and a ton of amazing folks both IRL and through social media. 

What I love most about Seattle and the community on Bluesky (formerly #wxtwitter) is the commitment to making our city a better place for everyone. Seattle is certainly a better city in 2026 than it was in 2013 and it will be an even better and more climate resilient place in the future because of the work that so many of you are doing. You folks know who you are — we may never have met so let me just say THANK YOU for fighting the good fight. 
I have never lived in the Southwest so it will be a fun adventure to check out a new city and climate for a while. I hear the weather is pretty nice there, but possibly “too boring” for people in my line of work. Speaking of, I work remotely so my career is staying the same and I’ll just expand my outreach scope to include more of the western US. So this is not really a goodbye, but a “keep up the good work and I’ll see you soon”. -Joe BZ

Map of western and central North America showing the earliest calendar date (Mar 17 to Jun 16) when historical 500 hPa heights met or exceeded the current 10-day forecast peak at each grid point. Gray areas indicate locations where that threshold was already met by today. Earliest dates (purple/blue, late March to mid-April) cluster in parts of the Southwest and southern Plains, while later dates (orange/yellow, May to mid-June) appear across much of California, Nevada, Utah, and nearby interior regions.”
freeway cam of snow at snoqualmie pass
hot-dry-windy index, which is a proxy for wildfire risk