Cherokee_Mountaincat
Jun 21, 2010, 2:45 AM
I hope to heck so! Having a summer up here Might be nice..lol
Washington might be the only state where the weather can be about the same on the first day of summer and the first day of winter.
The high was 52 degrees at Sea-Tac Airport on Dec. 20. Monday, it’s expected to be a balmy 61, according to the National Weather Service.
It’s not exactly an encouraging way to start the summer, and it’s likely to get worse before it gets better.
“It might warm up Tuesday and Wednesday, but then another low-pressure system is expected to build up off the West Coast,” Seattle-based National Weather Service meteorologist Jay Albrecht said late last week.
It’s those low-pressure systems, coupled with a steady spate of strong high-pressure systems in the east central Pacific Ocean, that keep allowing cool, moist air to flow into the Puget Sound region from the northern Gulf of Alaska, Albrecht said.
The results are daytime highs that have consistently registered well below normal. A case in point, the June 19 high recorded at Sea-Tac was 57 degrees, 13 degrees below normal.
As of Friday, Seattle still was waiting for its first daytime high this year of 75 degrees. The latest day of the year for the thermometer to reach 75 previously was June 9, 1991.
As for the wet part of the equation, May’s rain total at Sea-Tac was 2.83 inches; the average for the month is 1.78 inches. Spooner Farms on Yelm Highway started selling strawberries from its stand one week ago, which is about one week later than last year, farm stand coordinator Larry Thielen said. However, he said, the berries are extra plump, perhaps one benefit of the cooler weather.
“The cool spring weather will just string the berry season out a little later,” he said, predicting strong crops of raspberries, blueberries and marionberries as the summer rolls along.
Don Tapio, the Washington State University extension agent in Grays Harbor County, predicted crops such as peas, corn and tomatoes probably will ripen late this year. And some ornamental plants and shrubs are suffering from fungal diseases brought on by the moist weather and lack of sun.
“It has been a unique spring,” he said. “We’re suffering from a lack of heat units.”
Here are a couple of bright spots in the gloomy weather:
A heat wave in late May – a fairly common occurrence in Puget Sound – helped commercial Christmas tree growers escape a scorching of new growth on their trees, Tapio said.
Tourists in the Columbia River Gorge are being treated to spectacular waterfalls, thanks to record June rainfall in the Portland area.
Looking ahead, the NOAA’s Climate Prediction Center issued a 90-day seasonal forecast last week for July, August and September in the Pacific Northwest that predicts an equal chance that rainfall and temperatures could be above average, normal or below average.
How’s that for uncertainty?
Read more: http://www.thenewstribune.com/2010/06/20/1234693/summer-is-arriving-without-a-calendar.html#ixzz0rT2fvMvI
Washington might be the only state where the weather can be about the same on the first day of summer and the first day of winter.
The high was 52 degrees at Sea-Tac Airport on Dec. 20. Monday, it’s expected to be a balmy 61, according to the National Weather Service.
It’s not exactly an encouraging way to start the summer, and it’s likely to get worse before it gets better.
“It might warm up Tuesday and Wednesday, but then another low-pressure system is expected to build up off the West Coast,” Seattle-based National Weather Service meteorologist Jay Albrecht said late last week.
It’s those low-pressure systems, coupled with a steady spate of strong high-pressure systems in the east central Pacific Ocean, that keep allowing cool, moist air to flow into the Puget Sound region from the northern Gulf of Alaska, Albrecht said.
The results are daytime highs that have consistently registered well below normal. A case in point, the June 19 high recorded at Sea-Tac was 57 degrees, 13 degrees below normal.
As of Friday, Seattle still was waiting for its first daytime high this year of 75 degrees. The latest day of the year for the thermometer to reach 75 previously was June 9, 1991.
As for the wet part of the equation, May’s rain total at Sea-Tac was 2.83 inches; the average for the month is 1.78 inches. Spooner Farms on Yelm Highway started selling strawberries from its stand one week ago, which is about one week later than last year, farm stand coordinator Larry Thielen said. However, he said, the berries are extra plump, perhaps one benefit of the cooler weather.
“The cool spring weather will just string the berry season out a little later,” he said, predicting strong crops of raspberries, blueberries and marionberries as the summer rolls along.
Don Tapio, the Washington State University extension agent in Grays Harbor County, predicted crops such as peas, corn and tomatoes probably will ripen late this year. And some ornamental plants and shrubs are suffering from fungal diseases brought on by the moist weather and lack of sun.
“It has been a unique spring,” he said. “We’re suffering from a lack of heat units.”
Here are a couple of bright spots in the gloomy weather:
A heat wave in late May – a fairly common occurrence in Puget Sound – helped commercial Christmas tree growers escape a scorching of new growth on their trees, Tapio said.
Tourists in the Columbia River Gorge are being treated to spectacular waterfalls, thanks to record June rainfall in the Portland area.
Looking ahead, the NOAA’s Climate Prediction Center issued a 90-day seasonal forecast last week for July, August and September in the Pacific Northwest that predicts an equal chance that rainfall and temperatures could be above average, normal or below average.
How’s that for uncertainty?
Read more: http://www.thenewstribune.com/2010/06/20/1234693/summer-is-arriving-without-a-calendar.html#ixzz0rT2fvMvI