Seattle about to set another temperature futility record?
As our spring snow might have hinted, it has been a rather cool start to 2013, and long range models suggest the trend will continue into April.
Jason Phelps, a UW Atmospheric Sciences student and former intern here, has gone back and looked up the latest dates for Seattle's inaugural 60 degree temperature and surprise, surprise, we're moving up the chart again this year.
On Saturday, Seattle will climb into a three-way tie for 16th latest date -- admittedly not exactly record territory yet, but we do have a chance to quickly move up the chart. We've been close a few times -- reaching 59 on March 1 and 58 on March 15, but have yet to officially crack the 60 mark.
The record latest date is April 11 in 1954. For Top 5 status, we need to get to April 4.
The computers suggest there is a chance Seattle could hit 60 on Tuesday (March 26) but it'll be close.
However, overall, the odds of relatively cool weather continuing into April are greater than normal.
The new 30-day forecast from the NOAA's Center for Environment Prediction once again paints higher probabilities of a cooler than normal April, just as it did for March:
As for rain, it is not picking up any discernible signal and gives us equal chances of being dry, wet or normal.
Stretching the forecast out further to their 90-day that spans April through June is much of the same:
But that cooler signal does not appear in the May through July forecast, indicating the cooler weather is mainly expected in the early spring than the late spring.
As for summer, the forecast don't lean either way for Western Washington but do suggest we might once again be spared a brutally hot summer that seems in the cards for just about everyone else:
Latest first 60 degree dates in Seattle history
1) 1954: April 11
2) 1957: April 8
3) 1959: April 7
4) 1950: April 4
5) 1971: April 4
6) 1976: April 3
7) 2002: April 3
8) 1967: April 2
9) 2000: March 31
10) 2003: March 29
11) 1964: March 28
12) 1948: March 27
13) 1955: March 27
14) 1969: March 25
15) 1997: March 25
16) 1953: March 23
17) 2011: March 23
Above normal temperatures for everywhere in the US but us. Not the case right now. It's below normal in a lot of places in the US today and will continue this weekend.
When I was a kid and up through my late teens, you could always count on our last snowfall to happen between about the 15th and the 21st of March. Once that was over with, things warmed up and we moved into Spring and Summer.It was not unusual to hit over 100 and once in a while 110 in the summer.Things then stated to cool off, and they were talking about the next ice age.Next things warmed up once again and now it was âglobal warmingâ.Now things are cooling off once again.Here in the PNW, we do not usually see much in the way of extremes, but especially in northern Europe it looks like they will have some really bad winters up until about 2030.Sorry Al, but this is just nature and it has been going on for 100âs of thousands of years.
What the hell, ANOTHER cold spring on the way, why can't we have winter in winter for once and spring in spring it's time to move to California.
Right back where it started from. Open up the Golden Gate. California here you come!