April 2025 Pacifc Northwest Weather

[SilverFallsAndrew]

5 minutes ago, MrWeatherTalk said:

But it warmed up to 41F in the middle of the night due to cloud cover so frost avoided. What time did your house reach 34F? For us it was 2amish then it bounced back up as clouds came in.

Actually early morning, we were probably above the low cloud deck.

[Port Angeles Foothiller]

Low of 30 this morning. 

[Omegaraptor]

How hard would it actually be for PDX to beat its 29F April record low?

I get that PDX has UHI and kind of sucks at radiational cooling, but how cold of an airmass would it really take? Kind of sticks out like a sore thumb in the record books...

[SilverFallsAndrew]

1 minute ago, Omegaraptor said:

How hard would it actually be for PDX to beat its 29F April record low?

I get that PDX has UHI and kind of sucks at radiational cooling, but how cold of an airmass would it really take? Kind of sticks out like a sore thumb in the record books...

Looks like SLE's record is 23 on April 13, 1968. They also had a 27 on 4/4/2009. 

[SilverFallsAndrew]

Speaking of unbreakable records. 32 at SLE on 6/3/1976 and 6/6/1899. 

[Edmonds Husky]

18 hours ago, Front Ranger said:

Yeah, in last decade only 2022 and 2016 were comparable regionally.

Very different results the rest of spring those years.

Ugh, spring 2022 was so brutal. Didn’t have proper spring/summer weather until mid June that year. 
No thanks. 

[the_convergence_zone]

11.22” of rain here this year through 4/1. Last year was 14.71 so running 3.5” behind.
 

However, April and May 2024 combined for only 2.74” here, so I wouldn’t be surprised if we get close to 2024 by Memorial Day. 

[SilverFallsAndrew]

Two years ago today. April 3, 2023. I’ll never get tired of talking about that winter. 

[Rubus Leucodermis]

54 minutes ago, the_convergence_zone said:

11.22” of rain here this year through 4/1. Last year was 14.71 so running 3.5” behind.
 

However, April and May 2024 combined for only 2.74” here, so I wouldn’t be surprised if we get close to 2024 by Memorial Day. 

19.61" through 4/1 here, most of it in March.

[MossMan]

On 4/1/2025 at 9:19 PM, Brian_in_Leavenworth said:

We had breakfast there last week, I was surprised that their outdoor pools were open.  Indoor pool and hot tub are open year round.  

I've always loved their breakfasts.  Now that we live here we've gotten to know the owners, both the current owners and the original owners (parents of the current owner), who have both since passed on.  He played the alphorn at breakfast on the deck rail up until he was about 80.

 

 

 

[SilverFallsAndrew]

5 minutes ago, MossMan said:

 

Very KOOL

[TigerWoodsLibido]

47F and partly cloudy. Should hopefully be able to mow at some point soon.

[SilverFallsAndrew]

Just saw that Malheur Lake in SE Oregon is now 52,566 acres. In 2022 it was 12,864 acres. 

[TT-SEA]

IPA on the deck... beautiful out here.

We lost Sunday but gained today.   Have to take advantage of it.

[Chewbacca Defense]

Looks like my days of grifting off the government will be coming to an end.  Got a job offer with an AEC company that will make for some potentially fun weather opportunities.  The company is based in Philly, and I will be supporting job sites scattered around the mid west and a couple of sites on the west coast.  I think Illinois, Kansas and Colorado will be some of the states I will be frequenting.  No travel for the first 6 months as the projects they have identified for me are still early in the design phase, but once they break ground, I'll probably go out on the road once a month.  I got a nice 25% bump in pay to go along with the offer.

Steep learning curve, as I don't really have much experience with construction projects, but glad to be getting away from aerospace, especially in these turbulent economic times.

 

On the weather front, another sunny day here.  We did have some clouds move through at one point, but looks nice out there now.

[Chewbacca Defense]

1 hour ago, MossMan said:

 

That's a hell of a bong.

[T-Town]

1 hour ago, TT-SEA said:

IPA on the deck... beautiful out here.

We lost Sunday but gained today.   Have to take advantage of it.

Cushions are on the covered deck furniture. They are eight years old and showing it. I thought we would get new ones but the custom made replacements are more expensive than just buying a new furniture set. 

[Phil]

20 hours ago, TT-SEA said:

Had to look it up on Google...

Don’t like the new name because I use GOA as an acronym for Gulf of Alaska and now I’ll have to think of something else.

But geographically speaking, Gulf of America actually makes a lot more sense. America is a continent, not a country. Gulf of USA would be stupid. Gulf of Mexico is stupid too.

[Phil]

21 hours ago, StormchaserChuck1 said:

DC is probably going to hit 80 for a 6th time already. and two 86F's in there, when Winter ended less than 2 weeks ago! It has not felt that warm though! I guess I'm used to it. 

Lower dews at this time of year help a lot. Today was the first day I noticed a mugginess in the air.

Looks like we catch a 2-3 week cycle of general troughiness with the subseasonal/MJO forcing transiting the W-Hem coming up. So a cooler/active pattern appears likely starting next week.  

[StormchaserChuck1]

18 minutes ago, Phil said:

Don’t like the new name because I use GOA as an acronym for Gulf of Alaska and now I’ll have to think of something else.

But geographically speaking, Gulf of America actually makes a lot more sense. America is a continent, not a country. Gulf of USA would be stupid. Gulf of Mexico is stupid too.

It should probably have its own name.

[Phil]

Classic Niño-costero ongoing.

Unlike 2017, I don’t think this will reverse into an EPAC Niña/+PMM by summer. Off-equator general circulation very different this go around.

[Omegaraptor]

Looking a lot more ridgy down south for the next couple weeks.

Should be a warm sunny trip to SF for me later this month. Even their troughing is usually gorgeous by this point though.

[StormchaserChuck1]

One of the big trends in the last few decades is that San Fran used to get a lot more rain. Now it only rains from time to time. 

[Cold Snap]

Been in the Phoenix area since Monday and it’s been a pretty nice week here. Highs in the 70s and even a 67/51 day here yesterday with some rain. Nice to come here when it’s not torching for once.

[Meatyorologist]

1 hour ago, Phil said:

Classic Niño-costero ongoing.

Unlike 2017, I don’t think this will reverse into an EPAC Niña/+PMM by summer. Off-equator general circulation very different this go around.

Wow the gulf is bathwater. early summer temps in early april

[StormchaserChuck1]

7 minutes ago, Meatyorologist said:

Wow the gulf is bathwater. early summer temps in early april

Atlanta should hit 90 tomorrow, making it the earliest ever by 18 days!

[Meatyorologist]

1 minute ago, StormchaserChuck1 said:

Atlanta should hit 90 tomorrow, making it the earliest ever by 18 days!

Seattle almost reset that water mark by a month back in mid April 2016

[Cold Snap]

@Phil any thoughts on this?

[BLI snowman]

6 minutes ago, Cold Snap said:

@Phil any thoughts on this?

March was a full blown spring month across the entire country. Seems like a month that is warming especially rapidly for the eastern part of the continent. 

[StormchaserChuck1]

3 minutes ago, BLI snowman said:

March was a full blown spring month across the entire country. Seems like a month that is warming especially rapidly for the eastern part of the continent. 

Yeah.. this was the last 5 March's before this one. 

[StormchaserChuck1]

12 minutes ago, Cold Snap said:

@Phil any thoughts on this?

Phil way ahead of time was saying it could happen.. the 10mb PV followed the QBO almost perfectly Nov-Feb, then a +QBO all of a sudden doesn't have a strong Stratosphere vortex signal in March, and sure enough we had a major warming. 

[StormchaserChuck1]

I found this interesting... since 2000, these are the analogs where we had a strong 10mb PV Nov-Feb, getting torn up in March. Look at how in the following May, it shows exactly that over the Arctic at 500mb.. it takes time for Stratosphere to make it to the surface.. in this case 2 months. 

There is even a +100dm anomaly over the Hudson Bay which is anomaly for 8 years in a short wavelength month like May. 

Edit: I also want to say that most of the time a 10mb High pressure in March takes time too make it to the surface (there was a -NAO signal in my composite for April). 

Following June-Sept: Again, see how the ridging gets split in middle by Arctic trough

^It has even + and - years (4-4), so there's no global warming general thing in play. 

Hot Summer

[MossMan]

Stopped by the weather rock today. 

[Sunriver Slush Zone]

56 minutes ago, MossMan said:

Stopped by the weather rock today. 

If you hang it with a rope, you'll be able to tell when it's windy!

[Phil]

1 hour ago, BLI snowman said:

March was a full blown spring month across the entire country. Seems like a month that is warming especially rapidly for the eastern part of the continent. 

Intradecadal variability is a funny thing. Our coldest March temperature on record was -1°F in 2015, just a decade ago.

This year just had a uniquely unreceptive troposphere following the PV breakdown. Still not sure why, haven’t had time to dig into it yet. Admittedly I did not see that coming.

[Phil]

1 hour ago, StormchaserChuck1 said:

I found this interesting... since 2000, these are the analogs where we had a strong 10mb PV Nov-Feb, getting torn up in March. Look at how in the following May, it shows exactly that over the Arctic at 500mb.. it takes time for Stratosphere to make it to the surface.. in this case 2 months. 

There is even a +100dm anomaly over the Hudson Bay which is anomaly for 8 years in a short wavelength month like May. 

Edit: I also want to say that most of the time a 10mb High pressure in March takes time too make it to the surface (there was a -NAO signal in my composite for April). 

Following June-Sept: Again, see how the ridging gets split in middle by Arctic trough

^It has even + and - years (4-4), so there's no global warming general thing in play. 

Hot Summer

 That summer composite is pure evil.

[StormchaserChuck1]

6 minutes ago, Phil said:

This year just had a uniquely unreceptive troposphere following the PV breakdown. Still not sure why, haven’t had time to dig into it yet. Admittedly I did not see that coming.

The Feb-March thing is real. That time has been pumping a SE ridge like 5 standard deviations warmer than normal -NAO. And when it's +NAO, we blowtorch too. Really since 2018.  I just made the observation that the sun was much hotter 2 Feb's ago. The maps fit it though. 

[StormchaserChuck1]

Just now, Phil said:

 That summer composite is pure evil.

lol.. but interesting finding, huh? Competing forces down to the surface 2-6 months after the Stratosphere transition.. 

[Phil]

1 hour ago, StormchaserChuck1 said:

Phil way ahead of time was saying it could happen.. the 10mb PV followed the QBO almost perfectly Nov-Feb, then a +QBO all of a sudden doesn't have a strong Stratosphere vortex signal in March, and sure enough we had a major warming. 

I think when the vortex is very strong late in winter (+QBO tendency) the vortex becomes increasingly vulnerable to strong wave attacks due to increasing insolation/tightening thermal gradient (O^3 effects) amongst other factors.

So the factors that enable its rapid intensification early/mid winter also enable its self-destruction at the end of winter.

[Phil]

8 minutes ago, StormchaserChuck1 said:

lol.. but interesting finding, huh? Competing forces down to the surface 2-6 months after the Stratosphere transition.. 

Yeah there are some interesting studies about dynamic final warmings having delayed effects with significant implications for NH patterns during summer/fall. Haven’t studied it too deeply yet, but I know some meteorologists are strong believers now. I’m still on the fence for the time being.