There’s been a lot of talk about the warmth of this weekend, but the REAL story is about the winds, not the temperatures. unusually strong easterly winds.
Today is a warm but pleasant day for many, as Seattle stays out of the water until the mid-80s, while peaks hit about 90 from Olympia down to the Willamette Valley.
But the warmth has been alleviated by a nice breeze in many locations, with gusts today reaching around 20 mph west of Washington/Oregon and 30-35 mph east of Washington Cascades.
The weather today and tomorrow is very different from the major heatwaves and that explains the winds.
Considering the higher-level model (500 hPa) a high pressure/altitude band extends north of us, which is NOT a canonical location/shape for a sunwave big hot for the Northwest. Another non-standard feature is a low center to our south.
All of this is VERY different from the situation in June 2021.
This pattern is creating a north-south extreme pressure band in the region, resulting in very strong easterly (eastward) winds, as illustrated by the situation around 5000 ft (850 hPa pressure level) around 11 tonight (see below).
Easterlies are very strong. And this model is bringing in cooler air from the east (colors represent temperature, with red being the warmest). Again, not optimal for the warmest temperatures.
The UW WRF model is predicting very strong surface winds tomorrow morning east of Washington, with some gusts reaching 40 mph (see below). There will be dust blowing.
The condition is associated with a strong north-south pressure band, bringing cool winds north through western Washington (see pressure forecast for Sunday’s norm at around 8 a.m.).
To get an intense heatwave around Seattle, the low pressure trough has to be right over Seattle, not south of us. This is why we won’t go crazy tomorrow.
These easterly winds over our region will be unusually strong, as indicated by the forecast to normalize climate anomalies tomorrow morning to wind speeds of around 800 meters above sea level. see below). There are as many as 4-5 standardized anomalies in eastern WA, which indicates a very unusual situation.
East winds will enhance warming on the western slopes of the Cascades due to compression warming on the slopes.
Temperatures will be slightly warmer tomorrow than today in western Washington, with peaks of 84-89F above water around Puget Sound and slightly warmer south (see temperature forecast). at 5 p.m. Sunday below).
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The transition to cooler temperatures will take place late Monday.
Enjoy Mother’s Day and observe the dust in eastern Washington.
