Under the Weather

I hope everyone had an amazing Thanksgiving and enjoyed the beautiful weather. It turned out to be quite the nice day — perhaps you were able to go outside and walk off all that turkey. The month of November is quickly moving by, and December is right on our doorstep. Ever since our wet start,…

Much of Western Washington had a wet start to the month of November, but since that atmospheric river, not much rain has fallen. This is abnormal — usually the month of November is our rainiest month of the year. The image below shows the total accumulated precipitation at KPAE for this month so far. You…

It has been quite the interesting week for weather in Western Washington. We’ve seen rain, flooding, thunder, hail, wind and snow — just to name a few. I want to recap a couple of these different events, starting with the rain. We are going to broaden the scope a bit more than usual, focusing on…

Ahh, fall. All just feels right in the Pacific Northwest, doesn’t it? Colorful leaves are falling, temperatures are cooling down, the rain is back… perfection. On average, November is our rainiest month of the year, with just under 5 inches of measurable rainfall at Paine Field. You can see the monthly climate normals for KPAE…

After several weeks of not much weather besides heat, sun and smoke, it is finally starting to feel like fall outside, especially with the return of the rain. In the past week, we have seen 1.39 inches of rain after only seeing 0.31 inches since July 1. In the span of about seven days, we…

In case you haven’t heard yet…the rain is coming back, baby! It’s been an absolutely brutal few weeks with smoke that just didn’t want to go away. At the time of writing this on Thursday morning, most of the area ranges from AQIs in the Unhealthy to Very Unhealthy categories, with some stations even in…

We had a late start to our “smoke season,” but that darn smoke just won’t leave us alone. Over the past few weeks, offshore flow has dominated our area, which has led to smoke infiltrating us from Eastern Washington and the Bolt Creek Fire near Skykomish. Check out this visible satellite image from about 4…

The rain and cooler weather should be back by now, in my opinion. And we definitely shouldn’t be dealing with any wildfire smoke—it’s October, after all! No matter how much people may love the sun and warm weather, many people also look forward to the fall season. There’s just a dreaminess to dressing in flannels…

We finally had some rain this week. I’m not going to lie; I was pretty happy to see the cloudy skies and showery weather. When all was said and done, we received a whopping — drum roll please — hundredth of an inch of rain. Yawn. That brings our total of rainfall to just 0.31…

Many of us were likely hoping that we could actually get through the summer months without having a smoke event. Unfortunately, that did not happen this year. Wildfire smoke from the north Cascades began pouring into western Washington by last Friday, which began reducing air quality. For our neck of the woods, this wasn’t anything…

One of the worst parts of summertime on the West Coast is the possibility of smoke infiltrating the area, contributing to poor air quality and visibility. We’ve been quite blessed in this department this year, with very little issues regarding air quality as a result of smoke. Unfortunately, it’s looking like we won’t escape completely…

For many, Labor Day weekend signals the end of summer and the beginning of a new school year. In fact, some schools have already started. Not only is “summer break” ending, but meteorological summer is, too. As of Sept. 1, according to the meteorological community, it will be autumn. Let’s take a look at our…

Well, here we are—the last weekend of August and the last weekend of meteorological summer. While the heat seems to have been around forever, summer has flown by as a whole. This year, the warmth just hasn’t seemed to let up, or if it does, it hasn’t lasted long. The graph below shows a yearly…

We’ve officially passed the halfway point of August and it honestly feels like we’ve been in the heat of summer longer than we actually have. With the exception of the beginning of June, we haven’t seen much rain. At this point, since June 1, the start of meteorological summer, we’ve had 1.49 inches of measurable…

It’s a sobering thought to think that August is already almost halfway over. With all the heat we’ve had lately, it honestly feels like it’s been summer forever. Believe it or not, we’ve actually passed the climatological peak of temperatures for the summer. Take a look at the graphic below. Using data from 1991-2020, the…

Is that…actually rain?? It is! After a 16-day hiatus from measurable rainfall at Paine Field, we finally received some rain on Thursday Aug. 4 —and boy, did it feel nice. At the time of writing this, the temperature outside at KPAE is sitting pretty at around 60 degrees. This feels quite refreshing after what seemed…

Trophies all around for those who have not melted yet this week. It’s never easy in our neck of the woods when the heat hits us like this, primarily due to the fact that many people do not have any form of air conditioning. For the majority of the summer, a fan in the window…

At this point in the summer, we’ve had a grand total of three days that hit a high temperature of 80 degrees or higher (according to data at Paine Field). All three of those days occurred almost a month ago with the heat wave that happened at the end of June. Since then, there have…

I don’t know if any of you have watched the movie High School Musical 2, but there’s a line from one of those songs that is coming to mind at the moment. During the opening song, one of the main characters belts out the phrase “summertime is finally here.” In that context, they are technically…

Despite the chance for some showers on our nation’s birthday, we ended up with a very nice day. At Paine Field, we saw a high of 66 degrees—a few degrees below the average 4th of July temperature—and did not register any rainfall. I celebrated most of the day outside and it was very pleasant. We did…

The month of June is already wrapped up and the Fourth of July is just around the corner. This is the time of year where people really start expecting the weather to reflect the season. Last weekend, we had a good taste of summer with the first real heatwave of the year. Much like last…

Happy summer, everybody! The astronomical season has officially caught up with its meteorological counterpart as of June 21. And just like last year, summer is looking to make a big statement with its arrival. Remember last year’s scorcher? I know I do, especially because I was getting married right as the heat wave was beginning….

The rain comes…the rain goes…then it comes again. Sound familiar? This pattern continues to occur, even with the month of June well underway. As we inch closer and closer to astronomical summer, you would expect that the weather would start getting consistently nicer—but that just hasn’t been the case. The rain just keeps coming back….

As of June 1, we have officially reached meteorological summer and, if anyone was wondering, the official start of the Atlantic hurricane season. With the exception of a few outliers, our spring felt more like fall, with cooler than average temperatures and what seemed like unrelenting wet weather. Take a look at the graphic below,…