September 2023 Weather in the PNW

[the_convergence_zone]

47.7 here last night. I'm like the opposite of @Port Angeles Foothiller. Although I should note my weather station is on my roof, it was probably a few degrees colder at 2 meters. 

[SilverFallsAndrew]

It rained all night down here and only got down to about 50.

[TT-SEA]

12 minutes ago, the_convergence_zone said:

You have an incredible microclimate. That must be one of the coldest spots in all of the western Washington lowlands. 

It really is amazingly different.   I never knew how cold and dry that area is and its very interesting having someone posting from there.

[Eastwind]

10 hours ago, iFred said:

Pretty sure he is locked out of his account. After the hack last spring, all admin accounts were reset.

He’ll find his way back.

I’m sure he will be back by Halloween.

[TT-SEA]

27 minutes ago, Port Angeles Foothiller said:

That seems like an aggressive definition. I got down to 34.5 last night and had what will most likely be a killing frost for all my uncovered veggies. Using 32 degrees my growing season is still going as I didn't hit it last night. My more tolerant plants will do okay and the plants I covered and heated, for those the season is longer than Fairbanks. This year I just was on the wrong side of the borderline temps for frost. At the beginning of the season it stunted a lot of stuff and last night ended my flowers, beans, melons, and squash. 

The last temp of 32 degrees in North Bend in the valley here was April 20th.    And we planted our garden a few days later and never had any issue with frost.   Obviously things grow slower if there are chilly periods in May but it does not kill anything.   Playing out a hypothetical situation... what if we plant the garden on April 20th and then have a light frost on June 20th when the garden is at its peak and everything is massive?   Does that technically end the growing season or start it?    Sort of irrelevant because the garden would just keep growing.   Just seems a little vague in terms of definition.  

[AlTahoe]

55 minutes ago, Port Angeles Foothiller said:

Last frost was June 20th. Today was first frost of Fall. Growing season for me is frost to frost. I of course extended this with covers and greenhouses, but the true outside season was 98 days.

It was 29F here on June 20th so it looks like a cool airmass did move through at that time. We went exactly 90 days between freezes and probably 75 days between frost. Summer felt very short this year. You being at sea level makes your Stats very impressive. 

[SouthHillFrosty]

4 minutes ago, AlTahoe said:

It was 29F here on June 20th so it looks like a cool airmass did move through at that time. We went exactly 90 days between freezes and probably 75 days between frost. Summer felt very short this year. You being at sea level makes your Stats very impressive. 

I think he's at around 1000ft in the Olympic foothills..... still very impressive for western wa

[TT-SEA]

4 minutes ago, AlTahoe said:

It was 29F here on June 20th so it looks like a cool airmass did move through at that time. We went exactly 90 days between freezes and probably 75 days between frost. Summer felt very short this year. You being at sea level makes your Stats very impressive. 

His location is not at sea level... its at 1,000 feet.   But that probably seems like sea level when you live at your elevation. 

[Eastwind]

The 12z GEM is not backing down with cold anomalous air heading into Montana next weekend. Would be a fun day to go to Crown Point, the east winds will be roaring.

[TT-SEA]

2 minutes ago, Frontal Snowsquall said:

The 12z GEM is not backing down with cold anomalous air heading into Montana next weekend. Would be a fun day to go to Crown Point, the east winds will be roaring.

Thar set up with really cold air east of the mountains and warm air on this side is what caused the firestorm in Oregon in 2020.   Really glad we have had so much rain now if that is how this plays out.   

[ShawniganLake]

52 minutes ago, TT-SEA said:

I think your definition of growing season is slightly different than the standard.

The USDA actually defines the end of growing season when the temperature reaches 28 degrees which is considered a killing freeze.    But even using 32 degrees... your growing season was 38 days shorter than Fairbanks.   That is pretty amazing.  

https://www.nrcs.usda.gov/wps/portal/wcc/home/climateSupport/wetlandsClimateTables/growingSeasonDatesLength

 The growing season can be approximated as the period of time between the average date of the last killing frost in the spring to the average date of the first killing frost in the fall. This represents a temperature threshold of 28 degrees F or lower at a frequency of 5 years in 10.

Yea.  The majority of plants will not suffer tissue damage with temps in the mid to upper 30s even if there is a light frost.  I picked all my warm season veggies last week before the rains came.   The constant dampness is much more damaging for tomatoes, peppers, cucumbers etc than sunny weather with cool nights. 

[TT-SEA]

10 minutes ago, ShawniganLake said:

Yea.  The majority of plants will not suffer tissue damage with temps in the mid to upper 30s even if there is a light frost.  I picked all my warm season veggies last week before the rains came.   The constant dampness is much more damaging for tomatoes, peppers, cucumbers etc than sunny weather with cool nights. 

But if there was light frost on June 20th in my example scenario... would I have to start the growing season over again even though my garden had been growing very well for 2 months already and would continue to grow?   That seems like a technicality and does not really define the season in which things were growing.   I think that is why the USDA uses 28 degrees because that would actually force you to start over.

[Port Angeles Foothiller]

30 minutes ago, TT-SEA said:

The last temp of 32 degrees in North Bend in the valley here was April 20th.    And we planted our garden a few days later and never had any issue with frost.   Obviously things grow slower if there are chilly periods in May but it does not kill anything.   Playing out a hypothetical situation... what if we plant the garden on April 20th and then have a light frost on June 20th when the garden is at its peak and everything is massive?   Does that technically end the growing season or start it?    Sort of irrelevant because the garden would just keep growing.   Just seems a little vague in terms of definition.  

In this example I agree with you. However, I had 10 frosts in June so it wasn't just a one off. I never got a long enough stretch to get massive plants. I truly am in a weird microclimate. This year has been pretty extreme with the cold spring and dry winter/spring/summer. Usually I am more in line with north bend

[Port Angeles Foothiller]

10 minutes ago, ShawniganLake said:

Yea.  The majority of plants will not suffer tissue damage with temps in the mid to upper 30s even if there is a light frost.  I picked all my warm season veggies last week before the rains came.   The constant dampness is much more damaging for tomatoes, peppers, cucumbers etc than sunny weather with cool nights. 

I'll be testing this theory for the next week or so. We had 9 hours of 30s last night. 3 hours below 35. 

[Phishy Wx]

58 minutes ago, the_convergence_zone said:

You have an incredible microclimate. That must be one of the coldest spots in all of the western Washington lowlands. 

well he is at 1k' 

 

edit: its been covered

[ShawniganLake]

10 minutes ago, Port Angeles Foothiller said:

I'll be testing this theory for the next week or so. We had 9 hours of 30s last night. 3 hours below 35. 

Was there ice on your tomato plants?

[Port Angeles Foothiller]

2 minutes ago, ShawniganLake said:

Was there ice on your tomato plants?

I covered them with a ghetto tent and a bunch of blankets. I even ran a space heater for good measure. Peppers had a row cover too, but the rest of the garden was out in the elements. 

[Phishy Wx]

[ShawniganLake]

1 hour ago, TT-SEA said:

But if there was light frost on June 20th in my example scenario... would I have to start the growing season over again even though my garden had been growing very well for 2 months already and would continue to grow?   That seems like a technicality and does not really define the season in which things were growing.   I think that is why the USDA uses 28 degrees because that would actually force you to start over.

Speaking of a long growing season.  One of my customers had a second crop off of their fig tree this year.  In 20 years I have never seen that happen.  And asking around it is the first time anyone has heard of a second crop of figs in this area.  

[TT-SEA]

17 minutes ago, ShawniganLake said:

Speaking of a long growing season.  One of my customers had a second crop off of their fig tree this year.  In 20 years I have never seen that happen.  And asking around it is the first time anyone has heard of a second crop of figs in this area.  

The immediate onset of warm weather in late April and the really warm May probably made that possible.  

[Phishy Wx]

here comes Indian Summer

 

 

[Anti Marine Layer]

5 minutes ago, Phishy Wx said:

here comes Indian Summer

 

 

No 80s.

[Rubus Leucodermis]

50 minutes ago, Anti Marine Layer said:

No 80s.

Yet.

[TT-SEA]

52 minutes ago, Anti Marine Layer said:

No 80s.

Maybe mid 70s here... after a little set back on Monday and Tuesday. 

[Rubus Leucodermis]

10 minutes ago, TT-SEA said:

Maybe mid 70s here... after a little set back on Monday and Tuesday. 

Euro says Abbotsford should reach 79°F next week. An 80-burger is definitely within the margin of error there.

[Rubus Leucodermis]

October 80-burgers next week.

[Phil]

2 hours ago, Phishy Wx said:

Going on 11 years without a new record low. I’m not impressed.  

[Rubus Leucodermis]

GFS agrees that an order of 80-burgers is on the way.

[iFred]

3 minutes ago, Phil said:

Going on 11 years without a new record low. I’m not impressed.  

Dr Ryan Maue said he liked this post

[TigerWoodsLibido]

59F and cloudy & dry in town. Surprised it hasn’t rained as much.

[SilverFallsAndrew]

35 minutes ago, TT-SEA said:

Maybe mid 70s here... after a little set back on Monday and Tuesday. 

Setback lol. That’s fox 12 Tim!

[Eastwind]

3 hours ago, TT-SEA said:

Thar set up with really cold air east of the mountains and warm air on this side is what caused the firestorm in Oregon in 2020.   Really glad we have had so much rain now if that is how this plays out.   

The 12z EURO is further east with the cold air. Looks like we’ll still get some offshore flow though but not as strong.

[TT-SEA]

1 minute ago, SilverFallsAndrew said:

Setback lol. That’s fox 12 Tim!

Yes... its a set back in the warm up.   That is just factual.    

And you should figure out who that fox12 person is because its truly not me.    Check with Mark.

[Cloud]

32 minutes ago, Rubus Leucodermis said:

GFS agrees that an order of 80-burgers is on the way.

Some places are about to get 80s for 2nd October in a row? Ouch

[Front Ranger]

1 hour ago, Phil said:

Going on 11 years without a new record low. I’m not impressed.  

Doesn't mean you can't be very scared or depressed by it, though!

[Front Ranger]

1 hour ago, Cloud said:

Some places are about to get 80s for 2nd October in a row? Ouch

Historically, the Willamette Valley has seen 90s in early October and 80s into the second half of the month.

[the_convergence_zone]

I remember when the Arctic was crushing record lows and the Antarctic was hanging out near normal. 

[ShawniganLake]

I’ll bet once the ridge gives way in the second week of October we see things turn super wet for a time.  WSW fire hose.  

[TigerWoodsLibido]

If we have a significant weather event on the horizon during the regular season then we should have an open zoom call so we can banter on it. Next best thing to a meetup, esp if snow is involved.

[Phil]

3 hours ago, iFred said:

Dr Ryan Maue said he liked this post