Our Afternoon Heat Comes Later
Editor’s note (08/13/2025 4:30pm): Time of day was previously shown in standard time on the graphs below, in error. The graphs and text are now updated to Pacific Daylight Time.
One of the things I really appreciate about living here is how late it stays light out.
Climatology of the Northeastern Washington Climate Division (#9)
In this edition of Climate Matters, we return to our Climate Division series in which we describe the local climate features in each of Washington’s 10 climate divisions, as defined by NOAA.
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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).
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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.
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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.
Whipsaws in Washington State Streamflows
At the risk of belaboring the obvious, we would first like to point out that we have been experiencing unusually dry weather in Washington state. A map of the precipitation during May through July 2023 expressed as a percent of normal.
Read moreWinter Precipitation Variability in Washington State
The last few months have featured considerable fluctuations in precipitation across WA state relative to seasonal norms. While such fluctuations have certainly occurred in the past and will continue to be part of our climate, they serve as a good excuse for taking a quick look at some of the observed temporal and spatial variability in winter precipitation in WA state.
Read moreWhipsaw: From an Exceedingly Warm October to a Cold November 2022
As described in this newsletter, WA state experienced unseasonably cold temperatures in November 2022 after record warm temperatures in the previous month. OWSC has received a variety of inquiries about the rapid transition from summer to winter this year.
Read moreA Different Way to Visualize Maximum and Minimum Temperature Distributions
Mean temperatures are often used to characterize the climate on time scales of weeks to millennia, but they are not the whole story. Belaboring the obvious, the variations in temperature also matter.
Read moreMountain Snow Depth gets a New Display
OWSC is pleased to release a new web tool that displays the bi-monthly snow depth data from the Northwest Avalanche Center (NWAC). Partially supported by Tableau, this was a collaboration between NWAC and OWSC and was recently featured in a UW News piece.
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