An update on the Convergence Zone

Greetings Convergence Zone readers!

As fall approaches in the PNW and a record El Niño builds, there will likely be major weather events to report on this fall. You have likely noticed the lack of new content on this website and might be wondering about the status of this project.

Over the past few years, my time and interests have been scattered. Since 2021, I left academia and turned my full-time research focus to severe convective storms at Verisk Weather Solutions. I became a father and dabbled in a bunch of different activities and hobbies.

Through all of this I was still a Seattle resident and it felt like I would be a PNWer for life.

Until this summer. My wife got a job opportunity in southern California so we packed up and moved all the way down I-5 to San Diego. I’ve been in San Diego since mid-June and have been acclimating to the city and the culture.

What does this mean for the Convergence Zone?

New content! In the spirit of my fresh start in SoCal, I have three new projects and more in the works.

1. A new Substack page for my writing. Substack is the ideal home for the deeper, longer form analysis that allows me to draw in more of my skillset as a research scientist. Its recommendation network makes it easier for high quality content to reach a wider audience. My content is free and there is no paid subscription option at this time.

2. I made an iOS app for El Niño forecast monitoring. It is now live in the app store!

The app is a one-time price of $4.99, but as a thank you to everyone who is still reading, I’ll send you a free promo code if you message me at my contact form in the next week (limit 50).

3. I built a ski forecasting model.

where2.ski is a statistical model to forecast ski conditions using seasonal climate models (the same ones in my El Niño app) trained on snow station observations. Here is the western US forecast for the 2026-27 winter.

Summit at Snoqualmie in Washington has the worst ski forecast in the western US this winter. Makes sense given the “El Niño on steroids” model signal.

Where2ski is entirely free at this time, I’m planning to add shorter-term forecasts later in fall when ski season gets closer.

Plus there’s more on the way!

Thanks to everyone for sticking with me and supporting this project over the years. The best thing you can do to keep me going is to use some of these tools and send me feedback on what would make them better.

– Joe BZ