July 16, 2010

One State: Different Weather


It is interesting to look at the recent temperatures across the Washington State and huge variability one sees.

Lets start with Quillayute (Forks) near the coast (see graphic). For most of the past two weeks it has been cooler and cloudier than normal, but they had that amazing heat wave between July 6-10th in which they greatly exceed the normal max temps..one day even getting above 90F. To do so requires offshore flow and they had that in spades that day.
Then there is Seattle (graphic). Quite a bit better. We had the heat wave of course, but we also had some recent nice days. Average the last two weeks...give one average conditions.

Try Pasco in the Tri-Cities. Close to normal overall, with some days getting to near 100F. This time of the year, you can nearly always find warmth east of the Cascades.
Saturday (tomorrow) should be decent, starting with low clouds in the west and burning back except for the coast. Temps reaching into the lower 70s.

But late Saturday and early Sunday an upper trough will pass through, substantially deepening the marine layer. The computer models indicate substantial low clouds over western Washington at 8 AM on Sunday and it will be very slow to burn out. Mid-afternoon clearing if we are lucky, with temps only getting up near 70F.

There is no heat for us in the offering. Models show general weak upper level troughs (low pressure areas) over our region. Forget 80s west of the Cascades at low elevations. But some Cascade hikes will be high enough to get one out of the morning murk. And perfect conditions for the Seattle to Portland bikers.

4 comments:

  1. The sun and 70's temperatures are wonderful. Very comfortable!
    But will we ever get some of those nice NW breezes of about 10-15 kts that we usually get on the summer days? These calm winds are just not good for sailing, and I only had my boat out once so far!
    Burning a lot of gas on my Honda wind substitute is just bad style.

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  2. Hey Cliff,

    Why is Probcast so off on the temps lately (i.e. it has us closer to 80° on Sunday)...not geared to account for the marine layer?

    Shannon (O'Donnell)

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  3. how high do you need to go to get out of this murk?

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  4. A recent pub talks about a decrease in cloud cover on the CA coast possibly affecting Redwood habitat and we are getting this cool weather this year with much marine influence, is it possible we are getting the CA coastal climate possibly moving northward?

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