The precarious weather of the Pacific Northwest was the focus of KING-TV Chief Meteorologist Jeff Renner’s visit to the Redmond Rotary Club yesterday (May 19).

“This is considered one of the four most difficult, most challenging areas to forecast in the country,” Renner said.

A lack of upstream weather stations is one of the reasons why it is so challenging to accurately report the weather here, he added. The current system of radar is not able to provide a complete picture of the weather. There are holes in the coverage, creating a Swiss cheese-like effect.

However, a new coastal radar station has the potential to fill in these gaps. The radar, located on Langley Hill near Copalis Beach, Wash., is expected to be operational on Sept. 30.

“We are very excited about this,” Renner said. “You look around the U.S., the only area that has significant areas of the coast undetectable by radar is Oregon, Washington and parts of Northern California.”

Coastal radar will be able to reach a highly detectable range of about 100 miles, according to Renner. It has the potential to pick up some storms as far as 200 miles out as well, greatly improving early warning systems.

There is a misconception about weather in the Pacific Northwest. Many think that the worst weather here is a little bit of rain.

“Part of that is the myth that we don’t have severe weather,” he said. “We don’t have severe hurricanes, but hurricane-force winds with very expensive damage along the coast.”

Flooding and air pollution also plague our state, he said.

While not a Redmond Rotarian, he was invited to give a presentation at the meeting by one of the members. Renner has received the American Metereological Society’s Seal of Approval and was named Seattle’s most accurate weather forecaster by a University of Washington study. He also provides weather forecasts for the Seattle Times in addition to his work with KING-TV.

Redmond Rotary is a local chapter of Rotary International, an organization of business and professional leaders that promote humanitarian service, peace and goodwill. They hold open lunch meetings every Thursday from 12:15-1:30 p.m.

“We have guest speakers every week,” said Pam Mauk, who recently took over public relations activities at the club. “In general, people like a wide range of interests. Once in a while, but not very often, there will be a speaker on some business aspect. Usually, it’s just of general interest, getting to know your community.”

The organization itself is private, but does accept new members from the business community.

“It used to be more that you had to be a business person and a business leader,” said David Markley, current Redmond Rotary president. “Rotary now is recognizing that there are many other disciplines and avenues of occupation that demonstrate leadership.”

More information about Redmond Rotary and future speakers can be found at www.redmondrotary.org.

Alex Peery is a student in the University of Washington Department of Communication News Laboratory.