Weather

Our offices are located on Morgan Hill in Port Towsend.  We look out to the east across the waters of Admiralty Inlet and on good days, all the way to the Cascade Mountains.  We've operated a weather station on our premises for years and are part of the NOAA SkyWarn Weather Spotter Network.  Our weather station data is uploaded to a national site every five minutes.  Weather graphs generated by that site combined with current radar imagery can be observed here.  The page is updated every five minutes.  Our station code is CW1035 which is identified in the radar image.  The Olympic Mountains to our southwest block most of the doppler radar signal in that direction so we cannot "see" weather approaching most of the Washington coast.  This is unfortunate since most of our "interesting" weather approaches from just that direction.

WebCam

Our webcam is temporarily offline while we create an enclosure and move it up to the roof.

Earthquakes

Minor earthquake activity is in our area is high.  We are located near the Cascadia Subduction Zone where the Juan de Fuca plate slides under the North America Plate.  Geologic history indicates periodic quakes of magnitude 9.0 or greater every 400 to 600 years along this zone.  The last large quake occurred in January, 1700.  Our computers are all backed up to a secure remote server.

In addition to the damage that might be caused by such a massive quake, a large part of Port Townsend lies just above sea level where damage from an earthquake generated tsunami could be severe.  We have been active in local government preparedness for both earthquakes and tsunamis.  The University of Washington Geophysical Department maintains current earthquake maps and their site is fascinating to explore.  Whenever we feel minor shaking, we head to their Real-Time Webicorders page to see if the quake can be located.  When we feel major shaking, we head under our desks!

Tides

Admiralty Inlet, just east of our offices, is the funnel through which nearly all of the waters of Puget Sound flow.  The average tidal change in the basin is around 10 feet.  Multiply that times 3200 square miles and consider that most of that exchange flows back and forth through Admiralty Inlet twice daily.  We maintain a server running the Xtide program in order to have rapid access to local