News | Washington State Climate Office

May 5, 2025 | Climate Matters, May 2025 Newsletter, Seasonal, Trends

Trends in the Timing of Spring Across Washington

There are a truly dizzying number of ways to measure the start of spring: Is it when lilacs start blooming and grapevines begin to leaf out? Or is it that first warm day of the season when local parks fill up?

Apr 4, 2025 | April 2025 Newsletter, Climate Matters, Climate Review, Climate Variability, Drought and Soil Conditions

The Fifth Pacific Northwest Water Year 2024 Impacts Assessment

The fifth Pacific Northwest (PNW) Water Year Impacts Assessment, released in March, chronicles the water year, its impacts, and how people responded across Washington, Oregon, and Idaho during the 2024 water year (October 1, 2023-September 30, 2024).

Mar 10, 2025 | Climate Matters, Climate Variability, Rain and Snow, Seasonal, Trends

Has it seemed cold and snowy during February in recent years?

Some folks have been remarking on how often it has been cold and sometimes snowy in February during the past decade or so. In part this can probably be attributed to the just-completed February of 2025, which has been the snowiest month of the winter for much of the state, especially at lower elevations on both sides of the Cascade Mountains.

Feb 11, 2025 | Climate Matters, Climate Variability, El Niño/La Niña and Global Climate Oscillations

Detecting La Niña in a Changing Climate

Global oceans have been very warm since 2023
It is no secret that global Sea Surface Temperatures (SSTs) have been steadily increasing for decades (Fig. 1) due to climate change. Notably, conditions since 2023 have been considerably warmer (highlighted in yellow on Fig.

Jan 13, 2025 | Climate Matters, Flooding and Streamflow, Rain and Snow

Rain on Snow

This is the time of year when it’s not just the climate geeks who are following what’s happening with our mountain snowpack. A range of audiences from winter sports enthusiasts to water managers are interested.

Dec 10, 2024 | Climate Matters, Extreme Cold, Winds

Winter Wind Chill Temperatures in WA State

Regular readers of our newsletter are quite familiar with the usual temperature and precipitation patterns across Washington state during winter. On the regional scale there are notable differences between the maritime conditions prevailing west of the Cascades, and the more continental conditions on the east side.

Nov 13, 2024 | Climate Matters, Climate Review

Water Year in Review!

We recently held our annual Water Year 2024 Recap & 2025 Outlook Meeting. As a refresher, we often look at our climate through the lens of the “water year”, which goes from October 1st through September 30th, as opposed to the usual calendar year.

Oct 15, 2024 | Climate Matters, Flooding and Streamflow, Trends

Study Review: Trends in Flooding for Washington State

As we head into the flood season we thought we would dig up a USGS study from a few years back that took a look at past trends in floods (full citation below).

Sep 10, 2024 | Climate Matters, Drought and Soil Conditions

See More Drought with C-MOR Drought Reporting

The Condition Monitoring Observer Reports on Drought (CMOR-Drought) is a collaborative effort by the National Drought Mitigation Center (NDMC), USDA Climate Hubs, and NOAA National Integrated Drought Information Systems (NIDIS) to document drought impacts across the nation since 2018.

Aug 8, 2024 | Climate Matters, Extreme Heat

Heat Waves: Heat-related illness (HRI) Prevention and Adaptation

With the hotter conditions in early July across the Pacific Northwest we’ve received a lot of questions about trends in heat waves. Past research from OWSC has shown that daytime heat waves — which we defined as 3 consecutive days above the 99th percentile — do not yet show a statistically significant trend across western Washington and western Oregon.