June-uary at last: cool temps, even mountain snow, on way to WA
Climate Lab is a Seattle Times initiative that explores the effects of climate change in the Pacific Northwest and beyond. The project is funded in part by The Bullitt Foundation, CO2 Foundation, Jim and Birte Falconer, Mike and Becky Hughes, Henry M. Jackson Foundation, University of Washington and Walker Family Foundation, and its fiscal sponsor is the Seattle Foundation.
Ahhhhh. Finally. June-uary.
After a month so far of roasting, dry, uncharacteristically sunny weather, Seattle is returning to its true June self Friday through Sunday morning, earning, albeit briefly, June’s affectionate nickname of June-uary.
Here it comes: Mountain snow, steady rain, crashing temperatures. The works.
The action starts Friday, with a juicy weather system cruising in to blanket the region in gray and wet. Temperatures will be in the 60s and one-quarter to one-half an inch of rain is forecast through Sunday morning. The best part is in the mountains, with snow forecast at levels as low as 5,000 feet in the Cascades, said Jeff Michalski, meteorologist for the National Weather Service in Seattle.
“That won’t affect travelers, but if you are hiking or camping in those levels, you could see snow,” Michalski said.
This is welcome news.
Seattle has already broken one record for heat this month, with temperatures baking the city at 90 degrees on June 8 — a high not seen since 1948 and tied for that date in 2015, Michalski said. Temperature-wise, we’ve been 2.1 degrees higher than average so far all month, he noted.
And it has been so dry. Rainfall, measured at Sea-Tac Airport, is close to an inch below normal for the month, Michalski said. Anybody with a garden — and a water bill already at punishing summer numbers — could have told you that.
The state is parched. The Washington State Department of Ecology on June 5 expanded its drought emergency in the North and Central Cascade Mountains and parts of Puget Sound, including parts of King, Pierce and Snohomish counties.
Ecology on April 8 had already declared a drought underway for the Yakima Basin watersheds, and issued a drought advisory for the Puget Sound region, now upgraded to an emergency.
Water utilities serving the area do not so far anticipate impacts for customers, thanks to taking early steps to manage for a crummy snowpack by banking healthy reservoir storage, Ecology noted.
So breathe deeply this weekend, take in the sweet scents of the watery wet. But don’t get too invested — temperatures are expected back up in the 80s by Tuesday.
A brief June-uary indeed.