Under the Weather

It really does seem like we can’t get much of a break from the rain around here. Through the first 11 days of the month, we’ve had eight days with measurable rainfall, two days with a trace amount, and a mere one day with nothing. Take a look at the following graph, which shows the…

It really seems like we can’t get much of a break from the wet and cool weather. Much of April consisted of this type of weather and May has mostly continued on the same trend. Since April 1 (and this is no joke), we’ve only seen six days with temperatures in the 60s—three of which occurred…

The month of April is almost over—crazy, isn’t it? The month’s weather as a whole could be characterized by two words: cool and showery. We’ve had moments of excitement with the occasional bout of hail and lightning, but overall, there hasn’t been much to write home about. Speaking to the cooler temperatures, take a look…

I hope that everyone had a great Easter! It wasn’t the warmest day, but it was dry and sunny. Speaking of temperatures, we’ve been running a little cool over the past couple of weeks. Take a look at the following graphic, which shows our temperatures for the month so far at Paine Field. The brown…

Happy almost Easter, everybody! The past week has been quite interesting in the weather department, with some areas seeing bouts of heavy rain, breezy winds, hail and even some light snow—making it seem a little more like January than April. This unsettled weather pattern has been in place for awhile and things aren’t looking to…

The month of March is officially in the books and April is well underway. We finished March with 1.14 inches of rain, compared to the average of 3.63 inches. This actually is the lowest monthly rainfall total for the month of March at Paine Field. A graph showing the total March precipitation for each year…

Happy April, everybody! It’s no joke that the year has gone by very fast so far—and we’re getting closer and closer to summertime. We’re at the weird point of the year where it could be sunny and 60 degrees one day and the next it could be pouring and barely making it out of the…

Well, we made it, everyone. We have survived another Pacific Northwest winter and have officially transitioned into spring. To make things even better, we were able to celebrate the new season with an actual spring-like day on Tuesday (March 22). I mentioned last week that we had the chance of seeing the first 60-degree day…

When we were in the height of our cold snap back in late December and early January, many of you were probably longing for spring—or the warmer/nicer weather generally associated with it—to come quickly. Since then, we’ve had a drier-than-average year up to this point, with 66% of the days having less than 0.01 inches…

Our transition from meteorological winter to spring was definitely a wet one after the majority of February was dry. Here is a map showing rainfall totals over the past week, from Friday through Thursday, March 3. Over the past week, most locations in Western Washington saw several inches of rainfall. The Tacoma Narrows Airport saw…

Many areas woke up to a slight dusting of snow Thursday morning. We were able to eke out just enough moisture at a cold enough temperature to make that happen. Most of that snow was no more than a pretty sight in the morning, as it quickly melted with sunny skies. Still, it seems like…

The month of February thus far has been very dry—abnormally so. Over the course of the first 16 days of the month, we’ve seen a mere 0.32 inches of measurable rainfall. We’ve had several days with a “trace” amount of rain, but not enough to register 0.01 inches in the gauge. The graph below depicts…

It seems like the month of February is just flying by—here we are, already approaching Valentine’s Day. At this point last year, we were about to see a blast of wintry weather. Anyone else remember our white Valentine’s Day? Below shows a picture that I took from Kirkland during that snowy event. This year, however,…

With the exception of a few storms at the beginning of the new year, we haven’t had much in the way of rain for several weeks now. We had a semi-active winter toward the end of 2021, but not much has happened since then. Take a look at the graph below. This is data taken…

Just as expected, the dry weather has continued over the past week or so. We did see a trace of rain very early on Jan. 21 (which barely counts as anything), but we’ve had seven days in a row with no measurable rainfall if you include Thursday, the 27th. I’m sure many of you are very…

The month of January is already more than halfway over and compared to the month of December, things have been relatively calm in the weather department. We had the cold start to the month—a continuation of the cold snap after Christmas—followed by a wet atmospheric river event, but apart from those, not much has happened….

The month of January thus far has seen a wide range of weather conditions, from below-average temperatures to above-average temperatures, and from snow to warm winter rain. We’ve seen wind and even a little bit of sun (wow, what a concept!). The big story of this past week was an atmospheric river that impacted the…

Happy New Year, everyone! 2021 was quite the year for a variety of reasons (at least it was for me—I got married, after all), but weather-wise, it was definitely an interesting year. Let’s examine some of the data. Take a look at the graph shown below, which depicts the total precipitation accumulation over the course…

Welcome to Alaska…I mean, Western Washington. Anyone else out there still defrosting from those cold temperatures? More on that in a moment. Last week I mentioned the slight possibility of a white Christmas. As expected, we didn’t quite get the white Christmas many desired—we just missed it by about 24 hours. Snow fell in the…

Christmastime is here. It’s hard to believe that we are only a day or so away from Christmas, but here we are! Winter has also officially arrived, as the winter solstice occurred on Tuesday. The days will only start getting longer as we slowly begin the march to spring and summer. But before we even…

It’s the weekend before Christmas, and all across the Pacific Northwest, not a creature was dry—not even a guest. OK, maybe I should stick to forecasting and let the professionals handle the poem-writing. However, there’s some truth to my lovely poem. It’s definitely felt like the rain hasn’t let up much in the past several…

It is hard to believe that Christmas is only a little over two weeks away. For those of you who are still in the process of buying and wrapping gifts, it’s getting close to crunch time! Most weekends in December are occupied by people doing shopping or attending holiday parties. Whether you’re attending an ugly…

As we mark the start of December, we also mark the start of a new meteorological season. One word that aptly summarizes our meteorological fall as a whole would be wet. Let’s take a look at some of the numbers. Below shows a chart of the total rainfall over the span of September through November…

It’s been quite the November so far in the Pacific Northwest. As I’ve mentioned in previous articles, November is climatologically our wettest month of the year—but not usually this wet. Through the first 17 days of the month, Paine Field has seen 4.45 inches of rainfall, compared to the normal 2.74 inches. This ranks in…

  Yep, it’s definitely November. If you had no idea what month it was, it’s quite possible you could deduce it was November based on how much it’s been raining the past several days. In fact, besides one day of a “trace” of rain, we’ve had measurable rain every day of the month so far…