There was some interest in our unusual dry periods this winter, so lets go one step further and compare the precipitation from Oct 1 to Feb 4 of this year, with some previous years (attached). The difference is clear...this year has an usual number of extended dry periods.
A few of you commented that this seemed like rainshadow year near and north of Seattle, and in fact you are right...we had extended periods of westerly flow...particularly when it was precipitating, and westerly flow tends to produce more rainshadows over central Puget Sound. (This area is to lee of the Olympic Mountains for westerly winds). On the other hand Sequim was in the rainshadow less!
Do the numbers support this? Here are the 3-month Nov08-Jan09 precipitation totals in inches and percent of normal (provided by Mark Albright):
Olympia 22.67 - 93%
Seatac 16.02 - 90%
Seattle WFO 12.91 - 80%
It does appear that the Seattle Weather Forecast Office in Sand Point, north of Seattle, was considerably lower compared to normal than SeaTac or Olympia.
Today was warmer than normal day, with temperature hitting the lower sixties in some foothills locations and mid to upper fifties filling the Sound. We do have an inversion over us (see figure) and a burn ban in Pierce County. Tomorrow day should be dry with increasing clouds. Rain moving in tomorrow night. Its been a long time.
There are rumors of lowland snow on Monday...more on that tomorrow.
For those that are interested, I will be talking tomorrow (Thursday) night at 7 PM at REI in Seattle on "Secrets of NW Weather Prediction" THis is open to the public and sponsored by the NW Ski Touring group.
Hey Cliff, I'm interested in attending your talk tomorrow! Will you be able to provide some background on yourself, I think that would be great! Thanks!
ReplyDeletejust name, rank, and serial number!
ReplyDeleteFun Fact:
ReplyDeleteMy car outside thermometer (which is pretty accurate) measured 65F in Shelton this afternoon!
Casey Burns
Kingston
Got up to 55 here in woodinville with mainly overcast skies.
ReplyDeleteI am intrested in more details for your Noaa confernce. I work at Noaa and planning to take those days off to attend.
ReplyDeleteI have put a link to the meeting website on my blog now...cliff
ReplyDeleteThanks
ReplyDeleteI am all registed and ready to go.
Hoping for snow on Monday!!!
ReplyDeleteI hope so too Kris but from the sounds of it we won't get much snow if any at all. From what I've seen and heard the only place where snow will be a factor is in the mountains. I would be happy with that I guess, I'm heading to Whistler next weekend and they need some fresh powder!
ReplyDeleteI hope Cliff says that I am wrong though sometime later today!
ReplyDeleteFrom what the WRF-GFS shows, it looks like mainly the coast will get snow and maybe a few interior lowland locales. But that could change of course.
ReplyDeleteYesterday's sunset was amazing. From Ballard it looked like Bangor Nuclear Submarine Base was on fire! Cliff, do you have a way of predicting pretty sunsets?
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