News | Washington State Climate Office

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.

Dec 4, 2024 | Media Coverage

Talking about climate and weather with the Office of the Washington State Climatologist

From its base at the southwest corner of the Seattle campus, the Office of the Washington State Climatologist provides expertise, tools and resources on “all things climate” to partners and communities across the state.

Nov 21, 2024 | Climate Outlook

November 2024 Climate Outlook

What’s Next for the Pacific Northwest?
El Niño-Southern Oscillation (ENSO): Neutral ENSO conditions, La Niña likely by late fall/early winter
According to the Climate Prediction Center (CPC), ENSO-neutral conditions are still present in the tropical Pacific Ocean.

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.

Jul 12, 2024 | Climate Matters, Marine, Winds

Upwelling Winds Along the Coast

Jack Barth and collaborators have published a recent journal article entitled “Widespread and increasing near-bottom hypoxia in the coastal ocean off the United State Pacific Northwest”. This article shows that ocean oxygen concentrations have tended to decline over the historical record, with the summer of 2021 in particular featuring large areas with values low enough to be harmful to many marine animals.

May 2, 2024 | Climate Matters, Climate Review, Drought and Soil Conditions

Fourth PNW Water Year Impacts Assessment Released

The fourth Pacific Northwest (PNW) Water Year Impacts Assessment, released in March, is a collaborative effort between water managers and scientists at the Office of the Washington State Climatologist, the Climate Impacts Group, Oregon Climate Service, Idaho Department of Water Resources, and the NOAA National Integrated Drought Information System (NIDIS).