Mt. Rainier had a reservation system the last few summers that prevented overcrowding yet still allowed for relatively spontaneous visits. It seemed to be working well. This year, it's gone with no explanation...

Spotted this garter snake on a hike this afternoon. The temperature at a nearby WA DOT weather station was 47°F. Can't remember ever seeing an active snake at a temp that low... #photography #wildlife #washington

Do you know how much of the solar system we could explore with $200 billion

Some nice lenticular clouds on the east slopes of the Cascades this morning: #wawx

Whenever anyone asks how I became interested in geology AND astronomy, this is the photo I show them:

For comparison, this would fund the community college that I teach at for approximately 245 years.

That’s 125% of the National Science Foundation’s annual budget, for anyone keeping track.

More early spring wildflowers from the Yakima Valley in Washington state: #wildflowers #photography

ICE arrests spiked in PNW in late 2025, per new data from @uwchr.bsky.social. Yakima County had most arrests per capita: 185 arrests per 100,000 people. Local advocate says surge there has been overlooked. www.seattletimes.com/seattle-news... (w/ @vizscience.bsky.social @ayoonhendricks.bsky.social)

For comparison's sake, the entire National Park Service costs $3 billion - a year.

Geology folks: any cool spots you would recommend visiting in Scotland? (Besides the obvious Siccar Point...) ⚒️

Wildflower season is in full swing! Great sunset light this weekend, but 20+ mph winds made it tough to get anything in focus! #washington #landscapephotography #wildflowers

Little does it know that in a few short hours...

Bringing this skeet back up because the THREE $90M each ($270M total) F-15s shot down today by friendly fire in Kuwait could pay for FOUR Chandra X-ray Observatories at full operations. Let's remember that when the 2027 president's budget request comes out soon. 🔭

Our front yard resident hawk enjoying golden hour light earlier this evening:

First wildflowers of the season here on the east slopes of the Cascades! A couple of weeks earlier than usual. Not surprising given how mild of a winter we've had.

The best thing about February (aside from the rapidly lengthening daylight hours) is that my drive to work coincides with sunrise on Mt. Adams:

#ICEoutforgood protest in Yakima, WA today, hosted by #YakimaIndivisible

First attempt at teaching my 20-month-old to look through a telescope tonight. The instinctive lunge for the eyepiece truly has no age minimum or maximum! 🔭

Going on a week straight of fog and stratus here in the Yakima Valley, but got to "escape" to the clear skies of Seattle briefly last weekend:

Photo by Pierre Lavie. Yes this is me. And I threw my Leica. It landed on the bass plate with hardly a scratch. Another Photographer grabbed it along with my phone and I was able to track him later. I was held face down tear gas deployed right in front of me and pepper sprayed directly into the eye.

Some nice lenticular clouds in the lee of Mt. Adams earlier this week...before the freezing fog set in. #wawx

Oh come on. My toddler can lie better than that.

Fun geology find in Spokane last weekend: a geology/Missoula Floods themed playground. Complete with interpretive signs and a J. Harlen Bretz quote! ⚒️

Posting my 10 favorite images from 2025 in the last 10 days of the year: #1: another wildflower photo...simpler than yesterday's image, just some spring balsamroot backlit by the setting sun. H Happy New Year! #wildflowers #washington

Posting my 10 favorite images from 2025 in the last 10 days of the year: #2: the densest patch of bitterroot I've ever found + surprise afternoon storms = a great day for photography #landscapephotography #wildflowers #washington

Posting my 10 favorite images from 2025 in the last 10 days of the year: #3: City photography isn't usually my thing, but I had a blast strolling and trolley-ing around Lisbon on this evening back in August. #photography #portugal

The fear and uncertainty extends beyond the orchards. It is palpable on campus and in the classroom as well.

Posting my 10 favorite images from 2025 in the last 10 days of the year: #4: A stark scene along the southwest coast of Portugal this past summer. This one reminds me of all the "artist's impressions" of exoplanet surfaces that I've seen over the years. #landscapephotography #portugal

Posting my 10 favorite images from 2025 in the last 10 days of the year: #5: One of my favorite mountains (Mt. Adams) with one of my favorite wildflowers (beargrass). #landscapephotography #washington

Posting my 10 favorite images from 2025 in the last 10 days of the year: #6: A repost from last month, but my mid-November rattlesnake encounter definitely makes the list. #photography #wildlife

Posting my 10 favorite images from 2025 in the last 10 days of the year: #7: 2025 was no match for 2024 in terms of celestial events, but we did get a couple of nice aurora displays, including this one just last month. #photography #aurora

Posting my 10 favorite images from 2025 in the last 10 days of the year: #8: A smoky sunset flying over the Canadian Rockies back in August. #photography

Posting my 10 favorite images from 2025 in the last 10 days of the year: #9: Takeoff #photography #birds

Posting my 10 favorite images from 2025 in the last 10 days of the year: #10: A lone western larch on a talus slope, Wenatchee National Forest, WA. #photography #washington

Snow levels are dropping rapidly here in central Washington. First snow of the year in Yakima! 🌨️ #wawx

Had a clean window and clear skies flying from PHX to PSC yesterday. Amazing views from Sedona all the way up to Great Basin NP. Come along with me on an aerial geology tour across the Colorado Plateau and Great Basin! ⚒️ #1: Beautifully eroded Paleozoic sedimentary rocks near Sedona, AZ

Lots of murky water hugging the west bank of the Columbia River, presumably from the flooding on the Yakima River. This is above Wallula Gap, 20-ish miles downstream of the Yakima/Columbia confluence. #wawx

It’s really demoralizing how many colleagues are using AI. Your job is literally to use your brain- your extremely unique, highly trained brain 😭

A brief summary as the atmospheric river finally tapers off, with the worst flooding along the Skagit river still to come.

I'm walking to a meeting in a T-shirt right now. Yakima's normal high temp for Dec 10 is 39°F. The record high for this day was 64°F back in 1946, so we've shattered that by at least six degrees and it's not even 1 o'clock. Insane. #wawx

Found the source of the mudslide that came across I-90 last night by North Bend, took out a portion of the Palouse to Cascades State Park Trail A roughly 200 foot landslide #wawx

Minimal precip here in Yakima so far, but the Yakima River is cooking with more woody debris moving downstream than I can remember in seven years here. #wawx

As a former 10-year employee of the NPS. This is racist.

Some #FridayFolds and #FridayFossils on the last day of fall quarter classes. Managed to have a nice field trip this afternoon despite getting our rental vans three hours late! ⚒️

Remember, when you order something from Amazon, Jeff Bezos won't even notice the difference in his bank account. When you order something from an artist, you're helping them buy more art supplies, pay living expenses, or maybe even get a little treat.

This is a legitimate scientific revolution in meteorology. Also, to be clear, these models are not the AI LLMs that most people are familiar with. They are machine learning algorithms trained on observations (actually reanalysis).

Neat geology find in Portland this evening. The Washington Park light rail station (260' below ground) has a drill core from station construction on display, complete with interpretive signage. ⚒️

Another one for the "Why should we care about astronomy?" file...