Daily Archives: January 16, 2009

A Sign of Hope Today

I must say, after all the cloudy and cool days we’ve seen lately it was nice to finally see two seconds of sunshine today! I was driving home from school in Silverdale and there were numerous breaks in the clouds. The sun never really burst through the clouds, but I did see a little glimmer of light and even saw some blue sky. It was short lived, however, as the clouds moved back in. (After reviewing that paragraph, I realize how pitiful that sounds!)

This will be the story for the first half of the weekend. Tomorrow looks much like today: mostly cloudy with the potential for a few seconds of sunshine (let’s shoot for the stars and hope we see TEN WHOLE SECONDS of sunshine!). Highs will be quite chilly in the upper 30s to lower 40s. Oh, and I forgot to mention: today’s high was 39 degrees. 39 DEGREES! I was not expecting 30s during this monstorous ridge, but alas the inversion won out and cooled us off. On the other end of the spectrum, Paradise at Mount Rainier was well into the 70s today under crystal clear skies. Even though I love cold and snowy weather, a nice 70 degree day wouldn’t be too bad 🙂

I can say with confidence we won’t be seeing any 70s this week, but we may get more sunshine to work with on Sunday (how appropriate!). Even though it’s two days away, there is still some uncertainty, but it appears the inversion may break down enough to deliver those good ol’ rays. After a mostly cloudy Monday, the ridge shifts to our east and it will become easier to clear out to at least partly sunny by Tuesday. There is always the off chance the ridge takes a longer time shifting…in that case, we may have to hold off on seeing the sun.

After some partial sunshine midweek, the clouds return and so does the threat for a bit of moisture. Don’t panic! So far models have been pretty wimpy with the amount of moisture advertised. In fact, we may not get any at all, so just stay tuned. Generally, though, it should be dry for the next 7 days or so. Highs will range from the mid 40s to lower 50s.

Then again, we ARE back into the La Nina phase, so the dry forecast can’t stick around forever!

Have a safe and enjoyable weekend!

Matthew Leach

Kitsap Weather

7 DAY FORECAST

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Long Range Thoughts: A Cold February Ahead?

January hasn’t been exciting enough for you?

While it doesn’t look likely that Western Washington will see a major cold wave before the months end, the Climate Prediction Center, or CPC, is forecasting below normal temperatures and above normal precipitation for the month of February. Our most recent February weather history (1998-2008) shows that February’s have been very dry and pleasant. I do know that in older history there have been some memorable February events and I’ll make a new post about it soon.  If the CPC is right, we could be into the cold and wet weather regime for the next three months: February, March, AND April. Maybe a spring 2008 repeat? 🙂

But this prediction doesn’t really surprise me. This past fall and early winter were under the “neutral” category, meaning ocean temperatures weren’t necessarily cold OR warm thus leading to some wild weather patterns (Cool and dry October, Balmy November, drastically colder and snowy December). However, ocean temperatures have greatly decreased since then, meaning a return to La Niña conditions. This spells cooler and wetter weather conditions for the Pacific Northwest.

Certainly interesting stuff…now I’m going to do my February research!

Matthew Leach

Kitsap Weather

P.S. Sorry, I was unable to film a video forecast these past two days. This weekend is a 3 day weekend, so I’ll get a video forecast prepared for this blog on Tuesday!

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