A Very Pleasant Heat Wave Ahead

Although the term heatwave has recently become a word that provokes fear and anxiety, a short, moderate heat wave can be very pleasant.

A time for swimming, icy drinks, and hanging out at a local park.

Although the term heatwave has recently become a word that provokes fear and anxiety A Very Pleasant Heat Wave Ahead

This week we will enjoy such a welcome period of warmth.  In a real sense, we are about to cross a meteorological rubicon from a cool/wet spring into mild/dry summer.

Below is the latest National Weather Service forecast for Seattle.   We have one relatively dreary day ahead (Wednesday), with a high of 65F.   Thursday is the transition day.  Friday will be in the mid 70s and Saturday through Monday will bring highs into low to mid-80s.

Although the term heatwave has recently become a word that provokes fear and anxiety A Very Pleasant Heat Wave Ahead

And after our "heatwave", there will be day after day in the 70s.

The warm period will be associated with the development of a moderate upper-level ridge along the West Coast, illustrated by the upper-level (500-hPa pressure level, about 18,000 ft) map at 2 AM Sunday (see below).


The surface map at 5 PM Saturday, during the first day of the warmth, has high pressure inland, easterly (offshore-directed) flow, a trough of low pressure extending from California northward into western Washington.  The classic warm pattern (the solid lines are sea level pressure and near-surface temperature is shown by colors).

Although the term heatwave has recently become a word that provokes fear and anxiety A Very Pleasant Heat Wave Ahead

This heat wave will be quite typical for this time of the year and will have little in common with the great heat event of late June 2021.

The latest extended forecasts suggest a profound change in the weather.

Temperatures over the next 30 days are predicted to be near normal  (see below)


While precipitation for the next 30 days is forecast to be below normal for most of the region.


_____________________________

Announcement

   I will be giving a talk on Northwest Weather and signing copies of my updated book (Weather of the Pacific Northwest) at the Northgate (Seattle) Barnes and Noble at 1 PM on Saturday, June 25th.  



Comments

Post a Comment

Popular posts from this blog

Why so little lightning in the Pacific Northwest? And a very nice weekend ahead.

Image
During the past 24-hours, there have been a few lightning strokes over the region (see below) but nothing to write home about (see below). It turns out that the Pacific Northwest and the remainder of the West Coast have some of the lowest frequencies of thunderstorms in the entire country (see below). But why?    My podcast provides the answer. And I also give the weekend forecast....and I think most will like what I have to say. To listen to my podcast, use the link below or access it through your favorite podcast service. Some major podcast servers:     Like the podcast? Support on Patreon 
Read more

The Time of Year You Can See the Air Move

Image
  Most of the time, you can not see the air move.   You can feel it, but the complex, turbulent motions are invisible to you, except when it interacts with leaves and branches on trees and plants. But for a few weeks of the year, the sky is full of small, cotton-like tuffs that like a natural MRI machine reveals the complex three-dimensional motions of the atmosphere.   Cottonwood season.  And we right in the middle of it.   Being cottonwood aware is of particular value this year.  It reveals the active dispersion and movement of air that makes the outdoors essentially COVID safe, and thus should be of some comfort for those nervous about transmission outside. Cottonwood seeds are embedded in small cotton-like fibers.   A million seeds weigh about 3 pounds.  Yes, each seed and tuff weights about .000003 pounds.   And that fact, plus the cottonwood tuff, means that these seeds fall VERY, VERY, VERY slowly.   So slowly that they are excellent markers for the three-dimensional flow of the
Read more

A Much Colder Than Normal April: But How Unusual?

Image
  April was a chilly month over the Northwest, but how chilly?     It turns out the answer depends on where you are located. The difference between this April's temperatures from normal across Washington State (below) shows that the entire state was well below normal.  The eastern side of the state was particularly frigid:  some areas were more than 6 degrees below normal.   Considering the west side of the state, the April mean temperatures at SeaTac Airport are plotted below.   This April was the coolest since 2011. April 2020 was in 15th place for the coolest April since the mid-1940s and was a bit more than 4F below normal.  So if you felt that you were cheated out of normal spring warmth...you are right. But if you really wanted to experience extraordinary April cold you had to be east of the Cascade crest. Consider Yakima.  Wow.  It had the third coldest April temperature since the mid-1940s.   And the all-time record in 1955 was only slightly colder. If you want a longer-te
Read more