Inland Northwest Hay Weather

We’re in the midst of a rather unusual long stretch of fair weather for this time of year. Highs in the 70s nearly every day. Lots of sunshine. No rain. But there are signs that the pattern will gradually change.  Here’s the weather map for this morning (Friday).  Warm high pressure over the western US. Eight days from now (Saturday the 16th), this is the predicted weather map. The warm ridge of high pressure is replaced by a cooler area of low pressure.  Before this happens, we’ll still have more fair, warm weather to contend with.  Saturday: Sunny in the morning, then increasing clouds. Highs in the 70s. Breezy afternoon.  Sunday: Mostly cloudy with clearing late in the day. Small chance of showers northeast Washington.  Highs in the 70s. Gusty afternoon wind.  Monday: Sunny.  Highs in the 70s.  Breezy afternoon.  Tuesday: Mostly sunny and very warm.  Highs 80-85. Wednesday and Thursday: A chance of showers and thunderstorms. ...

If you’re like me, you’ve looked at the forecast on your phone, and the lack of snow on Mt Spokane, and you’ve decided to plant your garden. There’s almost zero danger of a freeze for the first half of May. Here’s the outlook for the 2nd week of May: Warm and dry in the Northwest.  We’ll probably see our first 80s of the season over the next few days.  Tri-Cities will probably reach 90F soon.  This will be about 1-2 weeks earlier than normal, but nothing that we haven’t seen before.  (In 1977 Spokane hit 80F on April 7th). There’s a slight chance of some afternoon showers over northeast Washington today (Saturday). Then, a s I wrote in the last blog, there will be a very small chance of rain around the 10th, but I wouldn’t make any plans around it.  There’s a little better chance of rain starting on the 15th.  The European and US climate models both hint at rainfall returning for the second half of the month, but with temperatures still above average. ...

We’re looking at a mild and mostly dry stretch of weather in the Inland Northwest. After our rain event this past week, very dry air moved in behind the storm. That’s resulted in some rather chilly nights and cool afternoons. But temperatures will gradually be warming. Mon-Wed:  very small chances of light rain showers. Highs in the 60s. Lows in the 30s. A little breezy on Tuesday.  Thu-Fri: Dry and warmer. Highs in the 70s. Lows in the. 40s Sat-Sun: small chance of showers. Highs in the 70s. Lows in the 40s.  Next week: Dry and mild. Highs in the 70s, lows in the 40s. Breezy afternoons. Chance of rain around May 9th or 10th.  Overall, our precipitation since October is starting to lag behind normal, especially over northeast Washington. Meanwhile the Palouse has had a surplus of rainfall.  Over the past 30 days, there’s been a similar signal. The northeast part of the state has been getting short-changed, while the Basin and Palouse have been wetter than normal...

We’re going to warm up quickly before a slow moving area of low pressure moves by, bringing rain showers and possibly thunderstorms to our area by the middle of the week.  Sunday: warmer with a high near 70. Light wind.  Monday: warmer with a high in the mid 70s. Light wind.  Tuesday: increasing clouds with a high in the upper 70s. Our first 80F day  isn’t out of the question. A breeze in the afternoon. Showers and thunderstorms possible overnight.  Wednesday: Showers likely with a possible thunderstorm. Much cooler with a high in the mid 50s. Gusty winds.  Thursday: chance of rain showers and continued cool. Highs mid 50s.  Friday into next week: small chance of showers with highs in the 60s  and lows in the 30s. Just how much rain we get is a tough call.  With a slow moving low, there will be bands of rain wrapping around the low.  Even the Basin will see rain with this pattern.  Where exactly those bands of rain are located is to...

Any seasoned veteran of the Inland Northwest knows that spring is not a linear warming trend.  And with the current weather pattern we’ve taken a step back. The cool weather will continue for a couple more days before things start to warm back up.  This Afternoon & Tonight: a warm front will bring rain to the region later today and this evening. Lows in the 30s.  Wednesday: A cold front will bring a second round of rain early in the morning. Another cold and blustery day with a high only around 50. Possible rain or snow showers in the afternoon and overnight. Low in the 20s overnight. Around 0.1” to 0.25” for a storm total precipitation.  Thursday: cold morning. Possible rain or snow showers. High only around 50. Gusty afternoon wind. Low in the 20s overnight.  Friday: cold morning. Should be dry with a an afternoon breeze and a high around 55. Low in the 20s overnight.  Saturday: increasing clouds with a chance of rain after sunset. High around 60. Lig...

Recently a weather outlook has been making the rounds. The Washington Post meteorologists caught wind of a professor positing about the potential for a super El Niño this coming winter, possibly the strongest in 140 years. They’ve written stories about it in March and April. For the record, the meteorologists at the Capital Weather Gang as well as the professor they reference are top notch, and I’m not writing this blog to disagree with them. I just wanted to add a few additional facts.  El Niño, as most of you probably know, is a warming of the ocean in the Pacific along the equator.  I won’t bore you with how this affects our weather in the Northwest.  But 9 times out of 10, El Niño brings mild winters to our area.   So how is El Niño measured?  A rectangular area in the Pacific is chosen and named Nino 3.4, which is the light blue area on the map below (image from the ECMWF webpage). Computer climate models predict ocean temperatures.  Those temperatures...