The generally nice weather over the last week has masked a growing problem for Seattle’s temperatures: They’ve been stuck in a rut.
For the past eight days, the city’s high temperature has barely budged, varying between 68 and 71 degrees as a monotonous weather pattern set in. To wit, here’s Seattle’s scorecard since June 7: 71, 69, 69, 71, 68, 69, 70, 68.
Fortunately, today’s the day we finally dig out.
For mom, things weren’t too shabby.
For dad, they’ll be even better.
Partly sunny skies and pleasant temperatures are on tap for Father’s Day, with rain staying out of the picture until Monday—a cut above the early morning and late night showers that bookended the weather on Mother’s Day. While May 12 did see enough sunshine to boost the afternoon high to 71 degrees, this Sunday is pegged to be even warmer, with temperatures peaking in the mid 70s.
Seven straight days of above-normal temperatures. Only a smattering of rain. Back-to-back 80-degree readings.
Seattle’s just-concluded first week of June sure is going to be a tough act to follow.
We’re already off to a less-than-impressive start, with a batch of low clouds that swarmed in from the Pacific last night hanging tough over Puget Sound, especially from King County northward. As we get further into the afternoon, the clouds will slowly fade as strong late-spring sunshine wins out—but high temperatures will take a hit regardless. Expect the mercury to max out in the upper 60s.
This time around, there was no stumbling out of the gate.
A year after getting tripped up early on—to the tune of 1.60 inches of rain in the first week—June has started off on the right foot, notching three straight days of warmer-than-normal temperatures with barely a shower in between. In fact, the month has recorded just 0.04 inches so far—all of which trickled down early Sunday morning before the clouds parted.
Hang in there another day.
Temperatures are expected to return to normal tomorrow, but not before one last hurrah of damp weather extends our chillier-than-average streak to 10 straight days.
That’s right, Seattle hasn’t notched an above-normal high since May 20, when the thermometer at Sea-Tac crept up to 67 degrees. Of course, that was also the last totally rain-free day in the city—with nearly 2 inches piling up in the gauge since then. (In case you haven’t guessed, rainfall this month has now exceeded the 1.94 inch-norm—through yesterday, we’ve collected 2.38 inches.)
The deck was already stacked against us to begin with.
Heading into the holiday respite, Seattle’s numbers weren’t pretty: 10 Memorial Day weekends since 2000 had featured rain on at least one of the days from Friday to Monday.
Make that 11.
What goes up must come down.
Two weeks after skyrocketing to a chart-topping 87, the mercury plunged in the opposite direction yesterday, peaking at just 52 degrees—the coldest high temperature ever observed in Seattle on May 22.
Previously, the record for the day belonged to 1984, when a soaking 0.67 inches of rain held the high to 54—but we slipped a few degrees lower Wednesday, thanks to a cold upper level low and some damp skies of our own. In fact, Seattle logged slightly over half an inch of rain yesterday, with the bulk falling during the morning—allowing us to keep a lid on temperatures for a good chunk of the day.
Thanks a lot, Alaska.
A cold upper level low plaguing The Last Frontier since Thursday is set to dive south into Western Washington on Tuesday, sending high temperatures crashing 10 degrees below normal amid frequent downpours. The low is expected to stick around for the balance of the workweek, keeping Seattle shivering in the 50s while pesky bands of showers roam the region.
Couldn’t our Alaskan friends have booted this troublemaker into the Arctic or something?
After climbing back down to normal on Tuesday, we descended another step yesterday.
The thermometer leveled off at 63 degrees Wednesday—the first time this month that Seattle’s high temperature came in under average. Despite predictions for cooler weather to return at the start of the week, our warmer-than-normal stretch held on through Monday, before the mercury slipped to the normal high of 65 for Tuesday.
Out with the new, in with the old.
It’s back to classic Northwest spring weather this week, after a rare early May warm spell brought a hat trick of 80-degree days to Seattle while keeping the rain gauge dry for the first 11 days of the month. With precipitation finally falling in Seattle early this morning, the streak goes into the books as the city’s second-driest start to May on record, outdone only by May 1-23, 1946.