By all accounts, Peter Hobbs didn't often merge his fascination for storm clouds with his passion for opera — particularly Wagner. But if he had, it's easy to imagine the scene: the bespectacled University of Washington professor in his research plane, flying through a maelstrom while "Ride of the Valkyries" plays in the background.

In more than 40 years at the UW, Dr. Hobbs embarked on many scientific adventures worthy of a dramatic musical score.

He was the first to use a research aircraft to study the plume of an erupting volcano, heading for Mount St. Helens within a few hours of its 1980 explosion. He and his crew flew through the pitch-black smoke from burning Kuwaiti oil fields after the first Gulf War. Stomach-churning forays into thunderstorms and cyclones were the bread and butter of his work to understand how rain and snow form inside clouds.

As Dr. Hobbs battled pancreatic cancer, he finished a new edition of the nation's top meteorology textbook and continued mining data from his final research program: an effort to better understand the way storms and mountains interact to give the Northwest its characteristic winter weather.

Dr. Hobbs died yesterday at his home in Beaux Arts, a community near Bellevue on the shore of Lake Washington. He was 69.

His discoveries about ice crystals in clouds are a cornerstone of modern weather-prediction models, said UW meteorologist Cliff Mass, a former student of Hobbs' and his longtime running partner. Dr. Hobbs also studied the role of aerosol pollutants in dampening the effects of global warming. His measurements in Kuwait quelled fears that smoke from the oil fields might change the planet's climate.

Just last year, he reported the largest raindrops on record: nearly-grape-sized globules over Brazil and Marshall Islands.

"Peter was undoubtedly the leading airborne meteorologist of his generation," Mass said. "His range of subjects was amazing."

Born in London in 1936, Dr. Hobbs has said he moved to Seattle after his training because it is "the cloud capital of the world."

When he arrived in 1963, most meteorological research was conducted indoors, with cloud chambers and controlled environments. But Dr. Hobbs wanted a natural laboratory.

For several years, he and his students set up camp on the Blue Glacier, perpetually in the clouds 8,000 feet up Mount Olympus. Then he scrounged up his first aircraft: A World War II Douglas B-23 Dragon, once owned by Howard Hughes and used in movies.

An early project to boost rainfall in Eastern Washington by seeding clouds as they passed over the Cascade Mountains didn't pan out. But Dr. Hobbs became a master at acquiring aircraft and patching together federal grants to keep his projects going, said UW climate researcher John M. Wallace. His persistence and prestige helped propel the UW's Atmospheric Sciences Department to the top ranks worldwide, Wallace said.

Dr. Hobbs is survived by Sylvia, his wife of 42 years; sons Stephen, Julian and Rowland; three grandchildren; his mother; and three siblings.

Sandi Doughton: 206-464-2491 or sdoughton@seattletimes.com