May 2024 Pacific Northwest Weather

[Cascadia_Wx]

Low of 38 so far here. Nice to see 30s.

[Rubus Leucodermis]

Low of 41.2˚F overnight. Now on the way to a high in the mid-60’s, then on to the 70’s and 80’s for a few days.

[FroYoBro]

Chilly morning. Got down to 36. 

[snow_wizard]

Low of 36 this morning.  Very respectable for this time of year.  Looks like OLM actually pulled off a freeze.

[SilverFallsAndrew]

Cloudy here, so no frost. Saw SLE pulled off a -8 departure yesterday. SCORE. 

Willamette Basin snow pack is 144% of normal now. Going to be some swift cold rivers this weekend. 

[MossMan]

It’s NOT raining!

Oh and there is a January 1950 redux incoming. 

[snow_wizard]

11 hours ago, SilverFallsAndrew said:

Gorgeous time of year. 

May is where I start liking it again.  For me very late winter and early spring is just a drag around here.

[snow_wizard]

14 minutes ago, MossMan said:

It’s NOT raining!

Oh and there is a January 1950 redux incoming. 

I think this is going to be a very enjoyable year.  Incredibly SEA has totally defied the odds and is running below normal for March 1 to present.  Could be a first coming out of a major El Nino winter.

Very impressive PNA forecast BTW.

[Phishy Wx]

13 minutes ago, MossMan said:

It’s NOT raining!

Oh and there is a January 1950 redux incoming. 

May region wide snowstorms, THE Best!

[Rubus Leucodermis]

34 minutes ago, snow_wizard said:

Low of 36 this morning.  Very respectable for this time of year.  Looks like OLM actually pulled off a freeze.

I camped at Millersylvania State Park in early May once. It froze overnight.

[snow_wizard]

18 hours ago, Cascadia_Wx said:

Let’s face it, cold is just harder to come by everywhere. So we’re stuck fighting over table scraps.

I wouldn't call the cold anoms so far this month table scraps.  We have had a number of very respectable cold shots this spring.

[Port Angeles Foothiller]

[snow_wizard]

18 minutes ago, Port Angeles Foothiller said:

Holy sheit!  I would have never dreamed it looked like that.  Pretty insane for the OR Coast.

On second thought...given this starts in 1975, I guess I can see it now that think about it.

[SilverFallsAndrew]

Just now, snow_wizard said:

May is where I start liking it again.  For me very late winter and early spring is just a drag around here.

I get that for the lowlands. Kind of a purgatory. Dreary, but no real chance of snow. The nice thing is we can get significant snow through mid-April, but generally early spring is major mud season up here as the ground is rarely ever frozen and we are still averaging about 9" of rain a month. 

[snow_wizard]

Looks like a puffy cloud north wind kind of day on tap.

[Cascadia_Wx]

3 minutes ago, snow_wizard said:

I wouldn't call the cold anoms so far this month table scraps.  We have had a number of very respectable cold shots this spring.

I was talking more big picture. Globally there is generally less cold to go around than there was decades ago. 

[snow_wizard]

Wow!  This kind of came out of the blue.  I like what I'm seeing right now.

 

[Cascadia_Wx]

5 minutes ago, SilverFallsAndrew said:

I get that for the lowlands. Kind of a purgatory. Dreary, but no real chance of snow. The nice thing is we can get significant snow through mid-April, but generally early spring is major mud season up here as the ground is rarely ever frozen and we are still averaging about 9" of rain a month. 

I can find March and April pretty nice here. But my ace in the hole is that sun and/or snow aren’t the only types of weather I’m able to enjoy.

[Deweydog]

Thirty-three here this morning. All-time record low for this station.  

[the_convergence_zone]

21 minutes ago, snow_wizard said:

Holy sheit!  I would have never dreamed it looked like that.  Pretty insane for the OR Coast.

On second thought...given this starts in 1975, I guess I can see it now that think about it.

Yeah if it started in 1950 we would be joining the rest of the country in the yellows and oranges most likely. Although the last decade has been quite favorable for snow in our region. 

[TT-SEA]

It's hard to enjoy weather in any season if you despise any day this is at or above normal or any day that PDX exceeds guidance. 

[Rubus Leucodermis]

6 minutes ago, TT-SEA said:

It's hard to enjoy weather in any season if you despise any day this is at or above normal or any day that PDX exceeds guidance. 

Weenie or downvote coming in 3… 2…

[TacomaWx]

Was pretty frosty here this morning at work in snoqualmie. We’ve had a few mornings that were pretty frosty here in the last couple weeks as well. 

[Front Ranger]

1 hour ago, SilverFallsAndrew said:

Cloudy here, so no frost. Saw SLE pulled off a -8 departure yesterday. SCORE. 

Willamette Basin snow pack is 144% of normal now. Going to be some swift cold rivers this weekend. 

Nice.

[Phishy Wx]

42 minutes ago, snow_wizard said:

Wow!  This kind of came out of the blue.  I like what I'm seeing right now.

 

could we get that in January?  thanks, the management

[Port Angeles Foothiller]

Down to 31.6 this morning. 9 of the last 11 mornings have been 36 or lower. 

[Front Ranger]

30 minutes ago, the_convergence_zone said:

Yeah if it started in 1950 we would be joining the rest of the country in the yellows and oranges most likely. Although the last decade has been quite favorable for snow in our region. 

The starting point and end point always matter with these trend things. 

Parts of the East were miserable for snowfall in the late 1940s to late 1950s. And those same areas did really well in the 2002-2015 period. So if you made a trend from 1950 to 2010, it would look way better for much of the East.

[the_convergence_zone]

4 minutes ago, Front Ranger said:

The starting point and end point always matter with these trend things. 

Parts of the East were miserable for snowfall in the late 1940s to late 1950s. And those same areas did really well in the 2002-2015 period. So if you made a trend from 1950 to 2010, it would look way better for much of the East.

Yeah interdecadal variability makes it a little tricky, but if you compared the last 20 years to the 1950-2000 average I think you'd probably get a plot that looks fairly similar to the trend plot. There's no doubt that winter snowfall is declining across most of the country. 

[Cascadia_Wx]

14 minutes ago, Phishy Wx said:

could we get that in January?  thanks, the management

We just had a big blast in January. Your posting algorithm needs updating.

[TacomaWx]

14 minutes ago, Phishy Wx said:

could we get that in January?  thanks, the management

I mean we did just have the biggest Arctic blast in over 30 years this JANUARY. I think a lot of people kind of forget about it because most of Seattle didn’t get any snow…but it was quite the winter storm down in western OR and towards the tail end up north. 

[TacomaWx]

1 minute ago, Cascadia_Wx said:

We just had a big blast in January. Your posting algorithm needs updating.

Lol we posted this at the same time. Yeah…like I was saying I feel like that event kind of gets discounted because most people on the forum are from the Seattle metro. It was an insane blast though I’ve never seen salt water freeze like it did in January. 

[Phishy Wx]

2 minutes ago, Cascadia_Wx said:

We just had a big blast in January. Your posting algorithm needs updating.

like a -4 PNA?  maybe I was asleep that week

[TacomaWx]

1 minute ago, Phishy Wx said:

like a -4 PNA?  maybe I was asleep that week

Didn’t Spokane come close to or get a sub zero high with that? I’m honestly not sure what the -PNA was with that blast. 

[Phishy Wx]

1 minute ago, TacomaWx said:

Didn’t Spokane come close to or get a sub zero high with that? I’m honestly not sure what the -PNA was with that blast. 

It was cold, yes.

[MossMan]

14 minutes ago, Phishy Wx said:

like a -4 PNA?  maybe I was asleep that week

 

[snow_wizard]

27 minutes ago, Front Ranger said:

The starting point and end point always matter with these trend things. 

Parts of the East were miserable for snowfall in the late 1940s to late 1950s. And those same areas did really well in the 2002-2015 period. So if you made a trend from 1950 to 2010, it would look way better for much of the East.

So very true.  In general 1975 through 2005 was awful for the NW, in spite of some great Arctic blasts and a few snowy winters.  The last 10 years have been far better so the map makes sense.

[Cascadia_Wx]

1 minute ago, snow_wizard said:

So very true.  In general 1975 through 2005 was awful for the NW, in spite of some great Arctic blasts and a few snowy winters.  The last 10 years have been far better so the map makes sense.

The 80s had a lot of arctic blasts around here but their overall dryness would have a lot of posters here discounting them completely.

Looking back at old stats they seem more enticing, though!

[Phishy Wx]

9 minutes ago, MossMan said:

 

Jan cold driven by other factors obviously

[TT-SEA]

1 hour ago, Rubus Leucodermis said:

Weenie or downvote coming in 3… 2…

The conversations this morning in my PT session (can't help overhearing with 10 different sessions going at the same time in a big open room) would have made Jesse's head explode.   I am not sure he could have made it through without bursting out and telling everyone they are wrong.   Its a burden being superior to all other humans.   

[TacomaWx]

Snow definitely would’ve added to the fun, but overall the blast this January was pretty top tier in every other aspect. Who knows when we will actually see ice formations like this down on the Puget sound again. Might be decades before it happens again.