Seattle has been hitting record-highs throughout 2016 and April has been a real scorcher overall. As Monday reminded us, that heat isn't going anywhere. And as Cliff Mass, professor of atmospheric sciences at the University of Washington, reminds us, that's not changing anytime soon.
This warmth has not been from a constant heat wave, but periods of normality interrupted by very warm intervals. Seattle's temperature for the past week below illustrate this. As we will show below, the warmest periods are associated with anomalous high pressure aloft, with one major warm period (April 18-23) being the real culprit.
Interestingly, Mass says that this probably has a lot less to do with global warming than it does with natural variability, though two consecutive hot springs is "a bit unnerving."
The forecasts say that the heat isn't going anywhere and that we're also in for much warmer May and June temperatures than usual as well. Basically, we're about a month ahead of where we normally should be, temperature-wise. Mass says that gardeners should act accordingly.
So go ahead, plant those tomatoes. Put the seeds in the ground. If you are a gardener, reset your clock and think of today as June 1st and you will know what to do.
· Today is June 1st: A Very Warm Spring in the Northwest, Again. [CM]
· Seattle Has Never Seen an April This Hot Before [CS]