News | Washington State Climate Office

Mar 9, 2023 | Climate Matters, Climate Review, Drought and Soil Conditions

PNW Water Year 2022 Impacts Assessment

The Pacific Northwest (PNW) Water Year 2022 Impacts Assessment is now available! Funded by the NOAA National Integrated Drought Information System, and produced through a collaboration of regional entities, this assessment summarizes the water year conditions and related impacts and responses by different sectors.

Feb 6, 2023 | Climate Matters, Climate Variability, Rain and Snow, Seasonal

Winter 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.

Jan 10, 2023 | Climate Events, Climate Matters, Extreme Cold, Rain and Snow

Freezing Rain in Washington State

Most everyone in the Puget Sound region on 23 December 2022 must have been impressed by the freezing rain that occurred that day. This event featured extremely slippery roadways and outside walkways; at least no one we have spoken with recalls a time when it was more treacherous to get around.

Dec 8, 2022 | Climate Matters, Climate Variability, Seasonal

Whipsaw: 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.

Nov 8, 2022 | Atmospheric and Oceanic Circulation Patterns, Climate Events, Climate Matters, Seasonal

The Near Endless Summer of 2022

After a very wet and cool spring, the Pacific Northwest had an unusually long stretch of warm and dry weather in 2022. The lack of rain was especially pronounced in western Washington, with many locations recording record low totals for the months of July through September.

Oct 11, 2022 | Climate Matters, Rain and Snow, Seasonal, Temperature

Timing of Seasonal Changes in the Weather of Washington State

This corner of our newsletter has recently concerned the seasonality of weather events in Washington state, and we continue in a similar vein in the present edition. More specifically, we consider average changes in temperature and mean precipitation on a daily time scale over the course of the year for selected locations in Washington.

Sep 13, 2022 | Climate Matters, Rain and Snow, Seasonal

Ready for Fall Rains?

This piece is intended to complement last month’s piece on the decline of the frequency of heat waves in WA state during the late summer. More specifically, here we describe how soon we can expect to begin enjoying our fall rains, based on historical data.

Aug 9, 2022 | Climate Matters, Extreme Heat, Seasonal

Frequency of Hot Temperatures in Summer

This month’s highlight is inspired by the unusually long-lasting heat wave in WA that occurred during the last week of July 2022. We were interested in how the frequency of hot temperatures, in terms of not just maximum but also minimum values, changes over the latter part of summer.

Jul 11, 2022 | Climate Change Report, Climate Matters, Extreme Heat, Rain and Snow

U.S. Climate Resilience Toolkit Climate Explorer

There is a large and growing number of web applications serving climate data. Notably, the U.S. Climate Resilience Toolkit (toolkit.climate.gov/ tools) has over 500 digital tools in its catalog catering to a wide range of users.

Jun 8, 2022 | Climate Events, Climate Matters, Ecology, El Niño/La Niña and Global Climate Oscillations, Marine

Cool Waters off the Coast of the PNW and in the Puget Sound

We have enjoyed a cool spring in WA state and perhaps it is no surprise that regional ocean temperatures are also on the cool side. A sea surface temperature (SST) anomaly map for a 7- day period near the end of May 2022 (Figure 1) shows negative anomalies off the coast of the Pacific NW, and in the central and eastern tropical Pacific Ocean (more about the latter below).