February 2024 Weather in the PNW

[snow_wizard]

2 minutes ago, Meatyorologist said:

My preferences haven't changed, really. I'm just more okay with it getting hot because I can't control the weather. But we can both agree that we've seen far too much of the latter in recent years, and having been born in 2001 I really haven't experienced a truly cold summer. I have sparse memories of persistent clouds in 2010/11 but that's about it.

July 2011 was kind of an old fashioned summer month.  A lot of morning low cloud / afternoon sunshine type days.

[Meatyorologist]

Just now, snow_wizard said:

The elephant in the room is the entire thing is red/orange.  I'm sure somewhere will end up below normal.  It is nice seeing a weak trough over us though.

CFS warm bias. Though it'll probably verify more correct than we'd like.

[Front Ranger]

19 minutes ago, MR.SNOWMIZER said:

I see a bunch of wet lowland snow events coming up the next 2 weeks. This pattern should be fun.

Since 2016-17, every February has featured measurable snow at either SEA or PDX, or both, except one (2019-20). Would be something to make it 7 out of 8.

[Cascadia_Wx]

3 minutes ago, Meatyorologist said:

My preferences haven't changed, really. I'm just more okay with it getting hot because I can't control the weather. But we can both agree that we've seen far too much of the latter in recent years, and having been born in 2001 I really haven't experienced a truly cold summer. I have sparse memories of persistent clouds in 2010/11 but that's about it.

The 1999-2001 stretch of summers were really nice. I was just getting into hiking then too. Lots of late melt off years in there. Still managed to see a lot of awesome spots.

I also remember some rained out 4th of Julys in the mid-late 90s. But even I was too young (7) to fully remember or appreciate the greatness that was summer 1993.

[Meatyorologist]

Just now, snow_wizard said:

July 2011 was kind of an old fashioned summer month.  A lot of morning low cloud / afternoon sunshine type days.

I remember days during that summer where clouds would take all day to burn off, then in the afternoon, just as the sun finally eroded its own fixture in the sky, you'd see the next marine push ahead of schedule; a wall of clouds spanning miles barreling in from the west. Haven't seen that since.

[Front Ranger]

2 minutes ago, Front Ranger said:

Since 2016-17, every February has featured measurable snow at either SEA or PDX, or both, except one (2019-20). Would be something to make it 7 out of 8.

Also, ironically as Justin earlier referenced how great the weather was in the 1960s, from 1964-70, neither SEA or PDX saw any measurable snow in February.

[Doinko]

7 minutes ago, Meatyorologist said:

My preferences haven't changed, really. I'm just more okay with it getting hot because I can't control the weather. But we can both agree that we've seen far too much of the latter in recent years, and having been born in 2001 I really haven't experienced a truly cold summer. I have sparse memories of persistent clouds in 2010/11 but that's about it.

I haven't experienced a truly cool PNW summer, I moved here in 2012 (from Austin, TX which had just seen a record warm summer in 2011). Hoping we see one this year.

[Meatyorologist]

Just now, Cascadia_Wx said:

The 1999-2001 stretch of summers were really nice. I was just getting into hiking then too. Lots of late melt off years in there. Still managed to see a lot of awesome spots.

I also remember some rained out 4th of Julys in the mid-late 90s. But even I was too young (7) to fully remember or appreciate the greatness that was summer 1993.

I daydream of what 1993 could have been like. Or 1954... Which is a crazier year because the troughing was equal to or greater in strength and persistence than 1993, yet it was all internally driven; no volcanic influence at all.

[SilverFallsAndrew]

18z GFS was a massive step in the right direction. 

[Meatyorologist]

August 1899 must have been insane.

[Snownerd3000]

If I get snow holed again so help me god

 

[Cascadia_Wx]

2 minutes ago, Meatyorologist said:

August 1899 must have been insane.

It probably snowed at Andrew’s house.

[Cold Snap]

The city I’ll be at in Alabama pulled off a 64/26 day today and a 62/22 day yesterday. The spreads they can pull of here in late winter are kinda crazy.

[MossMan]

47 minutes ago, MR.SNOWMIZER said:

The deepest snow event i have had in march is about 1 foot but i cant remember when that was.

I had a foot from a single storm in March 1989!

And over a foot combined with the few March 2019 storms. 

 

Edited February 20 by MossMan

[MR.SNOWMIZER]

29 minutes ago, Front Ranger said:

Since 2016-17, every February has featured measurable snow at either SEA or PDX, or both, except one (2019-20). Would be something to make it 7 out of 8.

yep and i have already continued the trend here. I 100% expect snow in February now.

[BLI snowman]

27 minutes ago, Front Ranger said:

Also, ironically as Justin earlier referenced how great the weather was in the 1960s, from 1964-70, neither SEA or PDX saw any measurable snow in February.

That's because it was a December, January, and March-centric decade. 

Even a winter that actually sucked pretty hairy balls like 1963-64 was overshadowed by the brutally cold months that followed. PDX's March-August was off the charts cold that year. Juneau lite! Would be fun to experience something like that again even if I do enjoy a heatwave or two. 

Edited February 20 by BLI snowman

[Cascadia_Wx]

1 minute ago, BLI snowman said:

That's because it was a December, January, and March-centric decade. 

Even a winter that actually sucked pretty hairy balls like 1963-64 was overshadowed by the brutally cold months that followed. PDX's March-August was off the charts cold that year. Would be fun to experience something like that again even if I do enjoy a heatwave or two. 

Jim was born 2/20/64. Coincidence?

[Slushy Inch]

2 hours ago, RentonHill said:

Here's 10:1 maps from both sites. Weathermodels doesn't have a pacific northwest map but they do have the states one. 

Been a lot of issues with phantom snow lately but this is certainly the best eps snow map of the winter

[Slushy Inch]

22 minutes ago, Snownerd3000 said:

If I get snow holed again so help me god

 

What’s you yearly snowfall? Mine is trace…

[BLI snowman]

Just now, Cascadia_Wx said:

Jim was born 2/20/64. Coincidence?

I was just thinking that that was right around when the pattern shifted to perma-troughing over our region.

Nature knew.

[Slushy Inch]

25 minutes ago, SilverFallsAndrew said:

18z GFS was a massive step in the right direction. 

Closer to getting a reload

[Cascadia_Wx]

1 minute ago, BLI snowman said:

I was just thinking that that was right around when the pattern shifted to perma-troughing over our region.

Nature knew.

Or maybe that sort of weather was forever imprinted in his infant brain. Chicken/egg type stuff.

[Cascadia_Wx]

I was born right after the October-December 1985 cold fest petered out

Hot (for the time) May and August followed.

[TT-SEA]

7 minutes ago, BLI snowman said:

I was just thinking that that was right around when the pattern shifted to perma-troughing over our region.

Nature knew.

But Jim hates gloomy weather... doesn't add up!

Anyways... the upcoming pattern has me sensing no regime change has occurred (February delivers even in a Nino) and we are probably heading for another toasty summer.   

[SilverFallsAndrew]

5 minutes ago, Cascadia_Wx said:

I was born right after the October-December 1985 cold fest petered out

Hot (for the time) May and August followed.

I’m august 1984. I can’t believe how old I am.

1 minute ago, TT-SEA said:

But Jim hates gloomy weather... doesn't add up!

Anyways... the upcoming pattern has me sensing no regime change has occurred (February delivers even in a Nino) and we are probably heading for another toasty summer.   

Agreed 

[the_convergence_zone]

I moved here in August 2013 so I don't have any memory of the cooler summers, but I do have memories of complaints about the summer of 2011. That was near-universally hated "summer" from what I could tell, although I was at the UW at the time so most of the people I interacted with were transplants. Obviously there are at least a half dozen people on this forum who would disagree with that interpretation. 

I think my wife would force us to move if a summer like that repeated itself, but I suspect that summer will end up being the coldest one of the 21st century. 

 

 

[BLI snowman]

16 minutes ago, Cascadia_Wx said:

I was born right after the October-December 1985 cold fest petered out

Hot (for the time) May and August followed.

Your first July was pretty epic, though.

[Snownerd3000]

21 minutes ago, Slushy Inch said:

What’s you yearly snowfall? Mine is trace…

Ya basically.  I haven't even bothered measuring because its been that bad.

[Cascadia_Wx]

1 minute ago, the_convergence_zone said:

I moved here in August 2013 so I don't have any memory of the cooler summers, but I do have memories of complaints about the summer of 2011. That was near-universally hated "summer" from what I could tell, although I was at the UW at the time so most of the people I interacted with were transplants. Obviously there are at least a half dozen people on this forum who would disagree with that interpretation. 

I think my wife would force us to move if a summer like that repeated itself, but I suspect that summer will end up being the coldest one of the 21st century. 

 

 

All the more reason to hope for a repeat!!  

[SilverFallsAndrew]

Summer 2011 was fantastic.

[BLI snowman]

20 minutes ago, TT-SEA said:

But Jim hates gloomy weather... doesn't add up!

Anyways... the upcoming pattern has me sensing no regime change has occurred (February delivers even in a Nino) and we are probably heading for another toasty summer.   

1964 wasn't an especially wet spring and summer. Lots of clear, cold nights.

Not every cool summer is gloomy. The colder background state during the big -PDO phase in the 20th century also meant a lot more progressive patterns in the warm months where cold fronts would clip us from the NW and advect in cooler and relatively dry air behind them. I know you kind of interpret all of those years as uniformly cloudy/damp but the reality was often not that way at all.

Seems unheard of today I know since we've see-sawed towards having a stagnant 4CH dominate every aspect of our warm season pattern.

Edited February 21 by BLI snowman

[Cascadia_Wx]

3 minutes ago, BLI snowman said:

1964 wasn't an especially wet spring and summer. Lots of clear, cold nights.

Not every cool summer is gloomy. The colder background state during the big -PDO phase in the 20th century also meant a lot more progressive patterns in the warm months where cold fronts would clip us from the NW and advect in cooler and relatively dry air behind them. I know you kind of interpret all of those years as uniformly cloudy/damp but the reality was often not that way at all.

Seems unheard of today I know since we've see-sawed towards having a stagnant 4CH dominate every aspect of our warm season pattern.

Sounds like a dream. 

[TT-SEA]

23 minutes ago, the_convergence_zone said:

I moved here in August 2013 so I don't have any memory of the cooler summers, but I do have memories of complaints about the summer of 2011. That was near-universally hated "summer" from what I could tell, although I was at the UW at the time so most of the people I interacted with were transplants. Obviously there are at least a half dozen people on this forum who would disagree with that interpretation. 

I think my wife would force us to move if a summer like that repeated itself, but I suspect that summer will end up being the coldest one of the 21st century. 

 

 

It wasn't that bad from July - September in 2011.  

And we had a gorgeous 4th that year... below is the UW satellite archive image from that day.   I just ran the loop for all of July and there was at least 19 or 20 days that were mostly sunny in Seattle from late morning onward.    Its not like it was non-stop clouds and rain.    There was measurable rain at SEA on 7 out of 31 days.   

[SouthHillFrosty]

Anybody got the 18z GFS ensembles please

[Slushy Inch]

3 minutes ago, SouthHillFrosty said:

Anybody got the 18z GFS ensembles please

Snow maps?

[SilverFallsAndrew]

10 minutes ago, BLI snowman said:

1964 wasn't an especially wet spring and summer. Lots of clear, cold nights.

Not every cool summer is gloomy. The colder background state during the big -PDO phase in the 20th century also meant a lot more progressive patterns in the warm months where cold fronts would clip us from the NW and advect in cooler and relatively dry air behind them. I know you kind of interpret all of those years as uniformly cloudy/damp but the reality was often not that way at all.

Seems unheard of today I know since we've see-sawed towards having a stagnant 4CH dominate every aspect of our warm season pattern.

Probably explains how we used to get lows below 60 in the summer. 

[BLI snowman]

20 minutes ago, the_convergence_zone said:

I moved here in August 2013 so I don't have any memory of the cooler summers, but I do have memories of complaints about the summer of 2011. That was near-universally hated "summer" from what I could tell, although I was at the UW at the time so most of the people I interacted with were transplants. Obviously there are at least a half dozen people on this forum who would disagree with that interpretation. 

I think my wife would force us to move if a summer like that repeated itself, but I suspect that summer will end up being the coldest one of the 21st century. 

 

 

Summer 2011 was very sunny and mild. Three solid months of mostly dry and beautiful, clear weather. I can't imagine anyone moving because of that June-September stretch. With the mountain snowpack also hanging on late it was some of the best our region ever has to offer.

April and May were quite chilly and gloomy, so people's views of that year maybe were clouded (literally!) by that. But most people who have lived here for awhile understand that those are transition months for our region and until recently could almost never be counted on to be barbeque weather months.

The problem is that recent transplants do now have a very warped view of those shoulder months since we have seen so many recent summer seasons like 2015, 2018, 2021, and 2023 solidly extend into the first half of spring.

Edited February 21 by BLI snowman

[Front Ranger]

43 minutes ago, BLI snowman said:

That's because it was a December, January, and March-centric decade. 

Even a winter that actually sucked pretty hairy balls like 1963-64 was overshadowed by the brutally cold months that followed. PDX's March-August was off the charts cold that year. Juneau lite! Would be fun to experience something like that again even if I do enjoy a heatwave or two. 

Of course.

Just interesting how lame February was back then, especially compared to the recent stretch.

[SilverFallsAndrew]

Just now, Front Ranger said:

Of course.

Just interesting how lame February was back then, especially compared to the recent stretch.

February 1956 was legit cold. 

[TT-SEA]

3 minutes ago, BLI snowman said:

Summer 2011 was very sunny and mild. Three solid months of mostly dry and beautiful, clear weather. I can't imagine anyone moving because of that June-September stretch. With the mountain snowpack also hanging on late it was some of the best our region ever has to offer.

April and May were quite chilly and gloomy, so people's views of that year maybe were clouded (literally!) by that. But most people who have lived here for awhile understand that those are transition months for our region and until recently could almost never be counted on to be barbeque weather months.

The problem is that recent transplants do now have a very warped view of those shoulder months since we have seen so many recent summer seasons like 2015, 2018, 2021, and 2023 solidly extend into the first half of spring.

But we also had the spring of 2022 in there which was bad by any standard.