Under the Weather

We ended the month of January on a dry note, but not before we amassed 3.95 inches of rain at Paine Field. This was very close to normal, ending just 0.06 inches above average. The first couple days of February have continued in this dry pattern but — in the typical Northwest winter fashion —…

We’re already about to wrap up the month of January — that’s right, we’re almost one-twelfth of the way through 2023. Time to start preparing for 2024… just kidding. Over the past week or so, the rate of rainfall at Paine Field has slowed down from what we have seen for most of the month….

It’s already over halfway through January — time is just flying by, isn’t it? At this time of the year, we’re no strangers to pretty consistent rainfall. After all, climatologically speaking, January is the third-wettest month of the year. So far this month, we’ve been living up to that standard. We had a slow start…

Happy New Year, everyone! The start of 2023 has been relatively dry thus far, but as we head into the first full weekend of the year, the rain is expected to pick up thanks to a train of several systems headed our way. Compared to what we saw toward the end of December, these storms…

The month of December has given us quite a bit of excitement this year. We’ve had significant snowfall, rainfall, wind and even a historic freezing rain event. I don’t ever recall seeing what I saw last Friday with the freezing rain. When I stepped outside, it was literally like stepping onto an ice rink. Even…

Happy winter, everyone! We’ve officially passed the winter solstice, also known as the shortest day of the year, signaling the start of astronomical winter. And boy, has it felt like winter around here for the past several days. You can just take a step outside and it shocks you a little bit at how cold…

The words “snow” and “Christmas” oftentimes go together like “peanut butter” and “jelly” unless you live in Western Washington — then they are more like the words “oil” and “water.” If you’ve lived in the area for any length of time, you know to not hold your breath for that “white Christmas” (which is meteorologically…

** Note: this is an abridged forecast article ** A rather robust system is impacting us at the time of writing this (Friday evening). Radar indicates widespread and, in some places, heavy rainfall for much of Western Washington. Showers are expected to continue at times through Saturday as this front moves through. By Sunday, a…

It’s been quite the interesting couple of days in Southwest Snohomish County. It’s not very often that we get a snow day in November, let alone one that was responsible for so many problems throughout the area. I was in south Everett on Tuesday night and the road conditions were quite treacherous driving home —…

I hope everyone had an amazing Thanksgiving and enjoyed the beautiful weather. It turned out to be quite the nice day — perhaps you were able to go outside and walk off all that turkey. The month of November is quickly moving by, and December is right on our doorstep. Ever since our wet start,…

Much of Western Washington had a wet start to the month of November, but since that atmospheric river, not much rain has fallen. This is abnormal — usually the month of November is our rainiest month of the year. The image below shows the total accumulated precipitation at KPAE for this month so far. You…

It has been quite the interesting week for weather in Western Washington. We’ve seen rain, flooding, thunder, hail, wind and snow — just to name a few. I want to recap a couple of these different events, starting with the rain. We are going to broaden the scope a bit more than usual, focusing on…

Ahh, fall. All just feels right in the Pacific Northwest, doesn’t it? Colorful leaves are falling, temperatures are cooling down, the rain is back… perfection. On average, November is our rainiest month of the year, with just under 5 inches of measurable rainfall at Paine Field. You can see the monthly climate normals for KPAE…

After several weeks of not much weather besides heat, sun and smoke, it is finally starting to feel like fall outside, especially with the return of the rain. In the past week, we have seen 1.39 inches of rain after only seeing 0.31 inches since July 1. In the span of about seven days, we…

In case you haven’t heard yet…the rain is coming back, baby! It’s been an absolutely brutal few weeks with smoke that just didn’t want to go away. At the time of writing this on Thursday morning, most of the area ranges from AQIs in the Unhealthy to Very Unhealthy categories, with some stations even in…

We had a late start to our “smoke season,” but that darn smoke just won’t leave us alone. Over the past few weeks, offshore flow has dominated our area, which has led to smoke infiltrating us from Eastern Washington and the Bolt Creek Fire near Skykomish. Check out this visible satellite image from about 4…

The rain and cooler weather should be back by now, in my opinion. And we definitely shouldn’t be dealing with any wildfire smoke—it’s October, after all! No matter how much people may love the sun and warm weather, many people also look forward to the fall season. There’s just a dreaminess to dressing in flannels…

We finally had some rain this week. I’m not going to lie; I was pretty happy to see the cloudy skies and showery weather. When all was said and done, we received a whopping — drum roll please — hundredth of an inch of rain. Yawn. That brings our total of rainfall to just 0.31…

Many of us were likely hoping that we could actually get through the summer months without having a smoke event. Unfortunately, that did not happen this year. Wildfire smoke from the north Cascades began pouring into western Washington by last Friday, which began reducing air quality. For our neck of the woods, this wasn’t anything…

One of the worst parts of summertime on the West Coast is the possibility of smoke infiltrating the area, contributing to poor air quality and visibility. We’ve been quite blessed in this department this year, with very little issues regarding air quality as a result of smoke. Unfortunately, it’s looking like we won’t escape completely…

For many, Labor Day weekend signals the end of summer and the beginning of a new school year. In fact, some schools have already started. Not only is “summer break” ending, but meteorological summer is, too. As of Sept. 1, according to the meteorological community, it will be autumn. Let’s take a look at our…

Well, here we are—the last weekend of August and the last weekend of meteorological summer. While the heat seems to have been around forever, summer has flown by as a whole. This year, the warmth just hasn’t seemed to let up, or if it does, it hasn’t lasted long. The graph below shows a yearly…

We’ve officially passed the halfway point of August and it honestly feels like we’ve been in the heat of summer longer than we actually have. With the exception of the beginning of June, we haven’t seen much rain. At this point, since June 1, the start of meteorological summer, we’ve had 1.49 inches of measurable…

It’s a sobering thought to think that August is already almost halfway over. With all the heat we’ve had lately, it honestly feels like it’s been summer forever. Believe it or not, we’ve actually passed the climatological peak of temperatures for the summer. Take a look at the graphic below. Using data from 1991-2020, the…