Amazing Warmth Doesn't End

We are living in interesting times, and I am not talking only about our recent election.  Specifically, we are living through the warmest early November in the history of the Northwest.   Temperatures more reminiscent of late September than the normally dismal month of November.

Consider:

On November 8th, we hit 70F, the latest 70F day so late in the season for Seattle.
This month Seattle has experienced 8 days with temperatures of 60F or more, a record.   To illustrate our torrid conditions, here are the temperatures for the past two weeks at Seattle, with normal highs and lows.   Amazingly, the daily lows have approximately the normal daily highs.  Only two days in the last two weeks have had low temperatures near normal.

As shown below, a number of days have equalled or exceeded daily records (shown by short red and blue lines for high and low records).

The minimum temperatures have really been remarkable...here is a plot of difference of the minimum temperatures from normal over the past week.  Most of the western U.S. has been crazy warm, with many locations over Washington and Oregon being 9-12F above normal.  No wonder my grass is still growing.  No frost.

There a lot of folks that are interested in the BLOB, the warm water feature that has been off our coast.  But you can't blame the BLOB for our warm period.   Why?  Because the  BLOB is dead.  Deceased.  Finished.

Want the proof?   Here is the sea surface temperature anomaly (difference from normal) yesterday.  See all that blue off our coast?  Colder than normal water.  No BLOB.  What killed it?  Low pressure centers and stormy conditions over the NE Pacific.

Here is a similar graphic for roughly two months ago.  Healthy BLOB.  You can see the difference.

Finally, for those ready to blame our warmth on global warming, here is a global perspective of surface temperature anomalies.  North America is very warm, but much of northern Asia and Europe are colder than normal.

Tomorrow is the last warm/dry day.  Saturday will bring the beginning of warm/wet period like we saw in late October.   So take a walk in a park or rake your leaves tomorrow.

Finally, with warm air aloft and long nights for surface cooling, low-level temperature inversions and fog have been forming overnight.  Take a look at the spectacular scene from the Space Needle Cam this morning....very beautiful.