Pacific Northwest Weather - May 2023

[MossMan]

41 minutes ago, Meatyorologist said:

It's okay, I got it

I did literally 30 seconds ago…I’m slow today. 

[MossMan]

Power just went out for a few seconds…Storms-A-Brewin? 

[jcmcgaffey]

8 hours ago, the_convergence_zone said:

I can't wait to get inside my beehives and see how much honey they end up storing this month. Going to be a record for sure. 

Had a huge swarm came through the other day and inhabit one of the neighbors bee hives. It’s quite the site when it happens. 

[the_convergence_zone]

10 minutes ago, jcmcgaffey said:

Had a huge swarm came through the other day and inhabit one of the neighbors bee hives. It’s quite the site when it happens. 

It really is! And the swarming bees are super docile so they are fun to work with. I’ve never gotten around to building a proper swarm trap but it’s on my to-do list for one of these years. 

[jcmcgaffey]

1 minute ago, the_convergence_zone said:

It really is! And the swarming bees are super docile so they are fun to work with. I’ve never gotten around to building a proper swarm trap but it’s on my to-do list for one of these years. 

The first time it happened I had no idea what was going on. I was on the phone out front and the buzzing got so loud I couldn’t hear the person on the phone. The side of the neighbors house was completely covered in bees. I thought it was a plague or something:)

[Anti Marine Layer]

It's baaaaaaacck

[ShawniganLake]

The cottonwood drifts were getting pretty deep around sunset.  Visibility was badly reduced at times today. 

[Anti Marine Layer]

1 hour ago, Phishy Wx said:

be one of those weird years that we have measurable snow in late September in Spokane then 60s in December

Nothing like mid 80s for Christmas and mid 60s for Memorial Day like we get here.

[MossMan]

The moon peeking through the trees. Nice night. 

[Phil]

Lol. I concur  

[Timmy]

nice night on the big island too

Edited May 26 by Timmy

[Phil]

S**t starting to dry out again imby. Was hoping it would be a typical flash drought that’s get doused quickly, but this clearly ain’t that.

 

[TT-SEA]

8 hours ago, Timmy said:

nice night on the big island too

Jesse did not approve of this post of your children watching the sunset on the beach.    Only his experiences and preferences are acceptable on here.   Get with the program!

[TT-SEA]

8 hours ago, Phil said:

S**t starting to dry out again imby. Was hoping it would be a typical flash drought that’s get doused quickly, but this clearly ain’t that.

 

But check out California! 

[SilverFallsAndrew]

14 minutes ago, TT-SEA said:

Jesse did not approve of this post of your children watching the sunset on the beach.    Only his experiences and preferences are acceptable on here.   Get with the program!

I gave it a troll reax. It is a great picture though. 

[T-Town]

Spectacular morning. Probably not putting in a full day at work today. 

[Eugene-5SW]

9 hours ago, Phil said:

S**t starting to dry out again imby. Was hoping it would be a typical flash drought that’s get doused quickly, but this clearly ain’t that.

 

Oregon west of the Cascades has had no rain in nearly 3 weeks with temps up to 20º above normal. Grasses are already heading out and browning off several weeks early. I guess I have a hard time believing the soil moisture is "normal."

[LowerGarfield]

Tomorrow will be a day of hiking, but I just haven't decided where yet. I'd like to hike Moscow Mtn but NWS Spokane thinks that area may have some t-storms tomorrow. Maybe we'll do some hiking on the Palouse near Colfax or maybe to our west in Columbia County, WA.

Today's high will be in the mid to upper 70's.

[Timmy]

1 hour ago, TT-SEA said:

Jesse did not approve of this post of your children watching the sunset on the beach.    Only his experiences and preferences are acceptable on here.   Get with the program!

Par for the course.  Although I hope he doesn’t know this, but those aren’t my kids, they are just some random kids. We left ours with aunties back at home. People said “4 nights isn’t long enough for Hawaii”.  To which I said “you can get a lot done in 4 nights with no kids.” It’s been a relaxing and full trip. We are ready to come home.  
 

the weather has been pretty wet around Kona which is not normal. We had one of the more intense downpours I have ever witnessed outside waikoloa last night too.

[TT-SEA]

6 minutes ago, Timmy said:

Par for the course.  Although I hope he doesn’t know this, but those aren’t my kids, they are just some random kids. We left ours with aunties back at home. People said “4 nights isn’t long enough for Hawaii”.  To which I said “you can get a lot done in 4 nights with no kids.” It’s been a relaxing and full trip. We are ready to come home.  
 

the weather has been pretty wet around Kona which is not normal. We had one of the more intense downpours I have ever witnessed outside waikoloa last night too.

Waikoloa is usually the driest place on the island.   Although I also experienced one of the heaviest downpours I have ever seen there a few years back in February.  

 

[Slushy Inch]

Warm southerly flow pattern could come eventually but has been pushed back in timing.

[GobBluth]

10 hours ago, Phil said:

S**t starting to dry out again imby. Was hoping it would be a typical flash drought that’s get doused quickly, but this clearly ain’t that.

 

The California anomaly is wild when they're just now heading into an El Nino.

[Phil]

2 hours ago, TT-SEA said:

But check out California! 

They desperately needed that, so I’m happy for them. Probably another good winter coming up too, with the +ENSO/-QBO both augmenting the STJ/narrowing the Hadley Cell. And it will be nice to finally have a summer without that 4CH machine spraying heat/EMLs around the country.  

But the vibes ain’t good imby. 7 of last 8 months drier than avg, including every month in 2023 so far. Prob won’t reach 1” this month.

In the 21st century, the only legitimate drought years here were 2002 and 2008. And the latter didn’t last very long. Former is interesting because it was coming off a 3+ year -ENSO stretch, but both QBO and dynamics of ENSO emergence were different that year.

[MossMan]

Last day in the 70’s for the foreseeable future. 

[Phil]

Next month’s NPAC jet extension/poleward +U transport now coming into focus across guidance.

Beginning of this process triggers the next upstream breaker/blocking ridge in W-Canada to open June, which subsequently gets undercut and absorbs northwest into -NPO. After which we should finally catch a more prolonged break from the ridging up there, perhaps a tad slower than my original thinking but not by much if so.

[Phil]

(OT) To date this is actually the 2nd driest May and 4th driest start to a year since records began in the 19th century.

So it’s not just my wx-weenie psyche this time.

[Rubus Leucodermis]

Gonna be heading out to Boston Bar in the Fraser Canyon this weekend. Should have some warm, sunny afternoons and hopefully get to experience a thunderstorm on one of them.

[TT-SEA]

35 minutes ago, MossMan said:

Last day in the 70’s for the foreseeable future. 

Well that is just sad.

According my forecast... this is the last day NOT in the 70s here. 

[Omegaraptor]

53 minutes ago, Phil said:

Next month’s NPAC jet extension/poleward +U transport now coming into focus across guidance.

Beginning of this process triggers the next upstream breaker/blocking ridge in W-Canada to open June, which subsequently gets undercut and absorbs northwest into -NPO. After which we should finally catch a more prolonged break from the ridging up there, perhaps a tad slower than my original thinking but not by much if so.

I would be surprised if we didn’t see at least one good rainmaker in June. Seems like something usually shows up sometime early-mid month.

[the_convergence_zone]

57 minutes ago, Phil said:

Next month’s NPAC jet extension/poleward +U transport now coming into focus across guidance.

Beginning of this process triggers the next upstream breaker/blocking ridge in W-Canada to open June, which subsequently gets undercut and absorbs northwest into -NPO. After which we should finally catch a more prolonged break from the ridging up there, perhaps a tad slower than my original thinking but not by much if so.

It looks to me like that ridge is going to try to retrograde right into the PNW. A decent chunk of the ensemble members now have a PNW heatwave in the ~June 4-9 timeframe. Far from locked in, but more likely than not IMO. 

[TT-SEA]

5 minutes ago, the_convergence_zone said:

It looks to me like that ridge is going to try to retrograde right into the PNW. A decent chunk of the ensemble members now have a PNW heatwave in the ~June 4-9 timeframe. Far from locked in, but more likely than not IMO. 

I think mid to late June might be decently wet though with the northward movement of the jet extension.   Hopefully that is the case.    It would not be good to go into July and August without a couple good soaking rains.

[Slushy Inch]

16 minutes ago, the_convergence_zone said:

It looks to me like that ridge is going to try to retrograde right into the PNW. A decent chunk of the ensemble members now have a PNW heatwave in the ~June 4-9 timeframe. Far from locked in, but more likely than not IMO. 

Looks like it should at least come with mountain thunderstorms 

[SilverFallsAndrew]

10 minutes ago, TT-SEA said:

I think mid to late June might be decently wet though with the northward movement of the jet extension.   Hopefully that is the case.    It would not be good to go into July and August without a couple good soaking rains.

Or we see an early fall, per BLI SNOWMAN.

[Anti Marine Layer]

It's beginning to look a lot like May 2019.

 

 

Guess we can expect more years like this with stupid climate change.

[Anti Marine Layer]

12 minutes ago, SilverFallsAndrew said:

Or we see an early fall, per BLI SNOWMAN.

Down here we are still waiting for spring to arrive.

[Omegaraptor]

1 minute ago, Anti Marine Layer said:

Down here we are still waiting for spring to arrive.

Correct me if I’m wrong, but people often live in/move to SoCal because they don’t want distinct seasons, right?

[Slushy Inch]

And boom heat develops. And what days of June had the 2021 heatwave?

[TT-SEA]

22 minutes ago, Omegaraptor said:

Correct me if I’m wrong, but people often live in/move to SoCal because they don’t want distinct seasons, right?

I assume that doesn't mean they want winter all year long though.   

[TT-SEA]

Just now, Slushy Inch said:

And boom heat develops. And what days of June had the 2021 heatwave?

Late in the month. 

[Port Angeles Foothiller]

1 minute ago, Slushy Inch said:

And boom heat develops. And what days of June had the 2021 heatwave?

1 weekend after my outdoor wedding on 6/20/21

[Anti Marine Layer]

28 minutes ago, Omegaraptor said:

Correct me if I’m wrong, but people often live in/move to SoCal because they don’t want distinct seasons, right?

But there are distinct seasons. Coolest part of the year has highs in the mid to upper 60s and lows in the 40s. Warmest part of the year has highs in the mid 80s and lows in the mid 60s. 

So far we are still having highs in the mid 60s which feels even colder than our winter since most of the days are sunny in January. 

May Gray usually comes in cycles with some cloudy days and some sunny days once it burns off. This year it's all cloudy days. Endless troughing with no sign of abating any time in the foreseeable future. 

I think someone must have asked Santa for Seattle and Los Angeles to switch climates last Christmas. 

[lowlandsnow]

Overall the next ten days are not actually that warm due to cooler nights

[TigerWoodsLibido]

13 minutes ago, Slushy Inch said:

And boom heat develops. And what days of June had the 2021 heatwave?

 

[Front Ranger]

13 hours ago, Phil said:

Lol. I concur  

This is why west is best.

[TT-SEA]

8 minutes ago, Front Ranger said:

This is why west is best.

Also seems pretty silly.   What defines "too hot"?   

[Anti Marine Layer]

34 minutes ago, Slushy Inch said:

And boom heat develops. And what days of June had the 2021 heatwave?

Missed Southern California in that picture.

[Phil]

1 hour ago, the_convergence_zone said:

It looks to me like that ridge is going to try to retrograde right into the PNW. A decent chunk of the ensemble members now have a PNW heatwave in the ~June 4-9 timeframe. Far from locked in, but more likely than not IMO. 

It will. Or at least up into W/NW Canada. Should be the grand finale to the subseasonal warm/dry regime that began during the 2nd half of April.

Thereafter it looks relatively tame until late July, at which point there is room in the pattern for the return of heat spikes. But unlike the last 2 years it won’t come via the 4CH route, rather will likely be centered in W-Canada and the spikes should be relatively transient in PNW region. The farther south you are on the west coast, the more transient it will be thanks to ULL/STJ influence (imo).

[Phil]

41 minutes ago, Anti Marine Layer said:

But there are distinct seasons. Coolest part of the year has highs in the mid to upper 60s and lows in the 40s. Warmest part of the year has highs in the mid 80s and lows in the mid 60s. 

So far we are still having highs in the mid 60s which feels even colder than our winter since most of the days are sunny in January. 

May Gray usually comes in cycles with some cloudy days and some sunny days once it burns off. This year it's all cloudy days. Endless troughing with no sign of abating any time in the foreseeable future. 

I think someone must have asked Santa for Seattle and Los Angeles to switch climates last Christmas. 

I wouldn’t consider a 15°F variation in averages as distinct seasonality. Not even close.

[Phil]

24 minutes ago, TT-SEA said:

Also seems pretty silly.   What defines "too hot"?   

Highs over 75°F. Says so in the bottom left.

[Phil]

I think this the first time I’ve pregamed @ an airport.

Looking forward to my first visit to CO.