What happened to Spring?

First we had a rather cold start to spring, with snow well into April.  Then suddenly we've jumped into summer weather with temperatures in the 80s.  Doesn't seem like much of spring this year.  Should we just plan on summer weather from here on out?  Yes and no.

In the short term, our weather is only going to get warmer.  Here's our current pressure pattern.  The red colors basically mean temperatures are above average, while blue colors are cooler than average.  Note the large area of red over the western half of North America, with the strongest anomaly in western Canada.  This is the reason we're in the 80s instead of our normal highs of upper 60s.  But the atmosphere is also very moist, so showers and thunderstorms are a threat for the rest of the week.



By Saturday, not much has changed, except that the high pressure ridge is directly over us.  This will bring even warmer temperatures for the weekend.  90F is possible for Saturday. Not very May-like at all.  There will be a better chance of showers on Sunday.



But there is some relief in sight.  Part of the low in the Gulf of Alaska (blue area in the picture above) will move into our area (image below).  Note that the color is just white, meaning that temperatures will likely cool down to near-normal readings (around 70F) on Monday.  There's a good chance of rain on Monday, then possible showers for the rest of next week.



But we're not seeing any real cold snaps coming our way.  Temperatures next week should gradually warm, reaching around 80 by Memorial Day weekend again.

If you're wondering what June will be like, the outlook is for more of the same.  First, the average temperature for June is expected to be above normal for the month.  That doesn't mean every day will be warm or hot.  Just that there will probably be more warm days than cool days.  Note that the biggest anomaly is in the Pacific Northwest.




As for rainfall, the signal is a little less certain.  Above-normal rainfall looks doubtful.  More likely that we'll see near or below normal rains for the month of June.






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