April 05, 2009

Heat Wave

You are not going to believe what is going to happen today. After weeks of far colder than normal weather, a veritable heat wave will begin today. But first consider where we have been (see graphic). Yesterday, was the first day in weeks with both sunshine and normal temperatures...but today we will enjoy temps far above normal...reaching 70F in some locations. We now have high pressure inland and a low offshore (graphic), such a situation produces offshore flow and moves down the western slopes of the Cascades. In fact,the profiler winds in Seattle shows strong southeasterly winds above us...and warm air aloft. An inversion near the surface is apparent (temps increasing with height near the surface)...but that will burn off quickly. With offshore flow the foothills areas are often the warmest, since they are front line to the air that has warmed as it sinks (compression by higher pressure increases temps). In fact, the temps this morning show this effect...look at the plot of temps...it is warmer in the foothills than near the Sound.
Anyway, today will be in the upper sixties to low 70s, tomorrow will be similar, and Tuesday should also be above normal. And did I say it would be dry during this period? A transition to cooler temps are in store for Thursday...with some rain.

ps: I will be talking about north Sound weather at the Everett Public library (downtown everett) today at 2 PM...

34 comments:

  1. The swallows have just arrived over here on the Kitsap Peninsula (yesterday). Yet yesterday and today we had frost.

    Cliff, any thoughts on what the weather will be doing in a week? I will be out doing some paleo fieldwork then.

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  2. Yesterday was pretty nice and sunny as my high got up to 59. And was pretty good for hiking, and yep there is still snow at Tiger mountain though the snow line has came up a bit and would say it`s came up SEVERAL hundred feet or so in the past three weeks.

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  3. How about those of us that won't enjoy these hot temperatures at all? Do we get any recognition?

    When will the nice weather come back?

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  4. Weather in your life...
    sorry..

    No recognition. This blog is biased towards warm and sunny weather, right now. You might consider another blog....cm

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  5. Hi Cliff, thanks. But how is hot and sunny conditions actually weather? Nothing is happening in the atmosphere - thus, not weather. (?)

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  6. 72F here on my front porch in the shade in Kingston. Might make it to 75+ in the next few hours. Very nice!!!!!

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  7. I love the Cliff Mass Weather Blog! The name, the content, everything. Where else can you get an inside look at the weather like this? Love it. Plus, every time I read the name, I think of the Bob Loblaw Law Blog.

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  8. 78F on my front porch here in Kingston.

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  9. it was like this exactly 2 years ago. it was record temps up and down the 1-5 corridor april 2007

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  10. Same thing last April 12. I think it got to 80 that day in Seattle.

    Summer has begun here, and now we have to suffer for the next six months. :(

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  11. Dear Weather is my life:

    I have a boss who feels exactly like you, and I often point out to him that there are very few places that he can move to and still enjoy moderate temperatures like we have. I tell him he should retire and move to Juneau...the only place with more clouds and rain, IMHO

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  12. JayDee, I actually had a chance to take a job in Juneau once but wasn't ready to move, so passed it up. I'm not sure why! It's not only the temperatures though - I prefer summers in the Midwest and Northeast because even though it can get hotter and more humid, you have thunderstorms that break it up and make it interesting at least. Here there's nothing to break up a long stretch of pretty much nothing going on. It gets really boring to me after awhile - well really only after a short time! :)

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  13. Dear Weather...

    One summer up here ('98?) we had a grapevine series of low-pressure systems that funneled moisture up from Baja and I turned up the stereo (Dark Side, Alan Parsons, and Terrapin Station) and sat and watched cloud-cloud lightning from Tacoma to Seattle. That was great, but alas, too rare. Nothing like New Mexico thunderstorms, with their high bases and intensity.

    So I like sturm und drang (hate warm fronts), but love it when the weather here is nice, like today. On March 15th we had sticking snow in Alki, now this...for those who like sun and mid-to-high 60s (or more).

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  14. Hi temp today of 68.2F at Roosevelt and Ravenna Blvd

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  15. 72 for my high today in Woodinville here on Hollywood hill.

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  16. JayDee, ah, but you have to be careful about using the word nice when you refer to the 'weather', because all of us have a different definition of what that means. :)

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  17. I'm wondering if we're in a similar pattern like last year with a warm weekend or two in April along with record cold min or max temps in the same month. We did have snow on the 23rd of April last year.

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  18. If we have warm air aloft, how come we've had sun dogs most of the afternoon yesterday, and again this morning? Yesterday (from my vantage point in Magnolia) we had a very lovely halo around the sun in the Western sky for several hours in the afternoon, and again this morning in the SE sky. I always thought that sun dogs were cold air phenomena.

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  19. Weather is my Life--
    You have already said your mind under somebody else a wile back...Give it a rest...Stay inside with the air conditioner, if you can find one up here. Without yin (cold) and yang (warm hot) there would be neither. The sound on average is cooler than the midwest in the summer. end of story.

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  20. CJ: The "warm" doesn't extend all the way up to the cirrus cloud levels (25,000ft+)

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  21. Josh B - what do you mean said your mind under someone else awhile back? And what am I supposed to be giving a rest?

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  22. Enough with analyzing people's posts half to death - get outside and enjoy the weather if you want to! Don't worry, there's more rain ahead for the cool-weather fans.

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  23. ...and please don't start the "it depends on what your definition of 'nice' is" debate again!

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  24. Westher Is My Life, you said Yesterday…… “ I prefer summers in the Midwest and Northeast because even though it can get hotter and more humid, you have thunderstorms that break it up and make it interesting at least.”

    Letshavesomefun1536 said back on march 5th …. “I grew up in the Midwest, not here in the Northwest. I'm not use to long months on end of sun; we have thunderstorms to break it up and make things exciting.”

    Plus other very familiar quotes about being to hot and "nice termanology"
    So which one are you?

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  25. Whoops - some trou got dropped on Cliff's blog.

    Did we really have snow last april 23rd? That seems a lifetime ago. And I cannot believe you had 78 in Kingston today! Amazing.

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  26. I would love to know what time in the morning you saw those sundogs CJ - I'm going to do some research and see if your elevation provided any benefit for you to see them. Because that would be neat to see in our area.

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  27. Guess it was earlier
    April 19-20 but still late in the season


    UNSEASONABLY COOL SPRING WEATHER

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  28. Thanks - looks like a good link to peruse.

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  29. Pretty nice here today and with sunny skies. My high made it up to 74. Maybe some one bottled this up in a glass jar for when need the sun/warmth next time around.

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  30. it snowed a couple of inches in Olympia that saturday.

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  31. Josh - it's not possible for more than one person to like weather?

    Cliff, anything more to look forward to for some of us? Thanks.

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  32. Interesting phenomena in Idaho a couple of weeks ago...

    snow rollers

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