Pacific Northwest Weather

[snow_wizzard]

R-Dub...Those pix must be from Minnesota or something. There is just no way frost like that could exist in our intense "heat wave" this week!

I will say one thing...The temperature ranges in Covington have been majestic this week! We have consistently had colder low and higher highs than most locations north of Seattle. Although, the warmest I have seen this week is 54. Only a few degrees above normal. The weekly average temp is still running well below in most areas!

Update - - I see no mention of any record highs in the daily summary for Washington State.

[snow_wizzard]

TT...I meant the next few day for highs in the 40s.

I will say that this does remind more of historic April cold spells instead of February. In the past there have been Aprils with significant continental influence and huge daily temperature ranges. Those cold spells are normally marked by periodic renewed shots of cold dry air, just like we are seeing now. This is just plain strange for this time of year. I am going to be taking a really good look at years that have seen this kind of thing. Last night I found that Feb 1942 had some similarity to this, and there was also a cold snap in January that year. 1942 went on to be a very interesting weather year, and the next winter was pretty harsh. It is going to take some time to compare this to past events.

[R-Dub]

RECORD EVENT REPORT NATIONAL WEATHER SERVICE SEATTLE, WA 535 PM PST FRI FEB 18 2005

...RECORD HIGH TEMPERATURES TIED TODAY IN WESTERN WASHINGTON... HI TODAY RECORD HI / YEAR

SANDPOINT WSFO 55 55 / 1996 QUILLAYUTE 56 56 / 1977


Just crazy to think of places having record breaking warmth, meanwhile I am walking on a frozen pond
http://pg.photos.yahoo.com/ph/golfer96_ ... pg&.src=ph

[R-Dub]

Have fun and safe trip to Arizona Anthony, don't get too wet down there

2/18/05 LK Goodwin WA
8:22:24 PM CURRENT
Clear
Temperature (ºF) 32.4
Humidity (%) 75.7
Wind (mph) N 0.0
Daily Rain (") 0.00
Pressure ("Hg) 29.74
Dew Point: 29.2 ºF

[R-Dub]

Andy keep your updates coming, that way I don't always have to look at what the models are saying, I just look at your summary

Currently at 8:40PM 32.1 degrees

[snow_wizzard]

Oh...The Sand Point records do not go that far back, and today was a very weak day for record highs in general anyway. Most record highs this time of year are in the 60s, so I am not really impressed with it. The temp was only about 5 dgrees above normal.

As for next week, it looks like the pattern is going to degenerate into a strong inversion, that could bring cool high temps to just about every location. The offshore gradients will be so weak that even Covington or North Bend will not see any east wind. Could be kind of murkey.

[TT-SEA]

I am not seeing a strong inversion next week.

I see strong northerly flow and then southerly flow.

Plus... it is almost March and a stagnant inversion is getting less likely. That is more likely from November - January.

[andycottle]

While on the topic of temps and precip, here are a few numbers for this month and year so far for Woodinville....well, here on Hollywood hill anyway. -- Andy

So far this month...
Avg. High: 49
Avg. Low: 32
Precip: 1.50"
Year so far: 3.79"

[TT-SEA]

Well maybe southeastly flow and then southwesterly flow.

[W13]

Currently 30 F as of 9:27 PM

I just noticed that we have only had 0.15" of rain here this month.

[andycottle]

Hi all! looking at tonights 00z GFS, our dry and mostly sunny weather continues right through next week and weekend with 500MB vorticity heights about 558DM and 850MB temps of +3C to near +6C. Though the only one exception is mid-late tomorrow and into Sunday when we could see maybe a light sprinkel or two as a weak but cool trough brushes us by with bulk of it heading into Eastern Wa. GEM and Canadain Global agree with the high pressure system building back in for next week. Should see more of the same next week with highs in the low-mid 50's to a few low 60's and lows in the mid-upper 20's to lower 30's.

-- Andy

[andycottle]

Clear skies with a temp of 33 and DP 26 here as of 9:45pm. -- Andy

[AnthonyC]

Very cold night tonight...already down to 32F at 10pm...colder than last night. The air also feels drier...probably why it's colder.

Well, I'm off to Phoenix tomorrow afternoon so I'll probably post in the morning. I get back Thursday afternoon, so I'll be gone for awhile. Unfortunately, this will not be the vacation I was hoping for. I was praying for brilliant sunshine with temperatures in the 70s...as of now, it looks like mostly cloudy conditions with rain off and on all week long...high temperatures near 60. Don't get me wrong, I do like the sun here in Seattle but you know it will never be warm enough to hang by the pool or hang outside too long in the winter. It just doesn't work in Seattle in February.

You know what I just realized?! I haven't looked at the long-range GFS model for almost a week now! The weather's been so dull that there hasn't been any need. That's sad for the middle of February. I don't remember ever going that long.

Goodnite to all!!

Anthony

[andycottle]

With a current temp of 32 here at 10:28pm...think I will revise my low temp and go for 25.

Anthony...have a safe trip too Phoenix! Is your trip work related? And you what..? If you get out of here before the clouds come in....bet you'll have an awsome view of Rainier, Adams, St.Helens and maybe Mt.Hood to.
-- Andy

[andycottle]

Temp now down to 31 as of 10:35pm. -- Andy

[andrewr]

Currently down to 28F.

[snow_wizzard]

Anthony...While the weather may not be dramatic right now, I would harldy call it dull. Any time we are in such an unusual pattern, it clearly says that something is up. To me this is much more exciting than typical rain and same old same old. There is no doubt that something has changed from the horribly mild weather of the past 7 years or so.

The big proiblem with many of our recent winters is there has been too much zonal flow...no chance for anything really good to happen. Needless to say the zonal flow stuff is over. Highly blocked regimes can bring very uneventful weather, but they can also bring the wildest weather of all! Before this year is over we are going to see the other side of the coin....

[andycottle]

Currently at 31.1 as of 11:15pm and humidity 85%. -- Andy

[andycottle]

Temp is now 30 degrees here at 11:30pm. -- Andy

[snow_wizzard]

Yet another really cold night. Already down to 30 in Covington. Our average low for the month now stands at 30.2...and dropping.

It could be quite a debate whether we will have a big time inversion next week or not. The very weak surface pressure gradients and the upper level high being right over us, strongly argue in favor of it. Also...we get very strong inversions in late (and even mid) October. At that time of year the sun is just as strong as it is now. The thing that may keep it from happening is the fact we have had so little rain. There is not a lot of moisture to produce fog and murk. If the inversion sets up and we get some fog going, we could have highs in the low 40s by the middle of next week. That would give this a good chance of being the coldest month so far this decade. Granted, that is not saying much, but it could be a start!