James Jones

I've been noticing the color on some trees in the last week or so as well, definitely the earliest I've ever seen it happen. But as Tim says, the rain always comes!!!!

At the very least it would build up major bad karma points for a blowtorch August-September. And complaining about stuff you can't control is never silly.

89 degree High Cloud Shocker? Make it happen Dewey!!!!!

Eh, the climate here has been slowly but steadily warming for as long as Europeans have been here to record the temperature. This isn't something that just started happening in the last few decades, though our recent run of summers has been ridiculously anomalous compared to the historical averages. It's on the climate to prove that it's stopped warming at this point. We'll still have the occasional blips on the way up like spring-early summer 2011, winter '16-'17, or the general 2008-2012 period, but I see no reason to believe that the long term trend is suddenly going to reverse course.

We don't really do the the chilly summer thing around here anymore. Been a very long time since our last historically notable one.

No? https://imgur.com/0iNyOKJ Very clearly peaks a bit over 77 degrees. The vast majority of the 1981-2010 averages were before the third runway was built, which is why SeaTac is beating out their 1981-2010 averages so much easier than every other location. The water makes a big difference man. I don't know why you seem to be having such a hard time wrapping your head around that. As I said, Darrington away from the water in the foothills at 48 degrees latitude peaks at 82 degrees in the summer at over 500'.

I'm not sure you're the right guy to tell us about the nuances of PNW microclimates with such certainty. SeaTac right on the water at 430' peaks at 77 degrees, it's completely reasonable that Tim's location away from the water could peak at 77-78. Darrington for example peaks at 82 degrees.

It does feel like we shifted into a different summer climate mode in 2013. I don't really understand it but I'm sure it could be explained by some Phil jargon. At least we can count on Dewey's August Icebox this year! I expect it to be the region's coolest since the 80s, setting us up perfectly for September’s best June 2015 impression.

Thanks, top end not looking too impressive at this point. Just consistently hot. Kind of ironic that PDX has hit 100 in only one July since 2009 despite the recent stretch of blazing summers.

Almost like the Willamette Valley is a much better bet for consistently summery weather than the Puget Sound. There has been an unusual difference the last few weeks though. How hot are the ECMWF surface maps looking for next week?

Is it really necessary to have this conversation for the 28572472710th time? DC's summers suck. Tim dislikes clouds and drizzle and likes sun and warm temps. The end.

Right, and it will turn sunny up there soon enough. Unusual to have that kind of gradient between the Puget Sound and Portland for so many days in a row but it doesn't take a big ridge to get sunny weather in Seattle during July. It's too bad things are so dry down here already, looks typical of the end of July rather than the end of June. Hoping we avoid another bad fire season.

Pretty ridiculous how ridgy these runs have been for the entire country, we're really the only spot in the nation lucky enough to avoid the heat through the believable range on the 00z. I'm sure we'll end up baking at some point though.

Definitely can be a big difference in these weak troughy patterns. Beautiful sunny start to the day here, this follows a pleasant partly sunny afternoon yesterday with temps in the mid 70s.

Interesting maps for sure but it’s not exactly ground breaking stuff here. I think most of us have a very good grasp of our climatology. Next we'll find out that our typical winter weather is filled with 40s and rain.

OLM was -1 today. Cloudy nights inhibit radiational cooling. Mystery solved, no need for another Tim/Phil argument.

Something something rain 2014 - present wet April. Where are you headed?

Nice day.

My completely unscientific gut feeling right now is that this will be the coolest PNW summer since 2012. September will torch though.

It was absolutely pouring here in West Linn, but I don't have a rain gauge set up at my place right now. Nice to see somebody caught it.

Thunder, lightning, heavy rain!

I like how Tim acts as if a "wet August" even means anything. A 1.6" mean for the EUG-BLI corridor would be statistically quite wet compared to average but would do little to alleviate the drought.

Heavy rain and thunder reported at Troutdale. Hope it manages to rotate farther west.

How about number of wet days compared to normal?