Snowy and cold summer solstice over the Pacific Northwest

The summer solstice, when the longest day of the year and solar temperatures are highest, will happen in less than 24 hours (7:57 a.m. PDT June 21). But instead of enjoying the warmth of summer, our region is being plagued by much cooler than normal temperatures, heavy rainfall, and snow at higher elevations (about 4500 ft). Some daily low temperature records will drop.

Snowy summer solstice.

This morning’s webcams at Paradise Ranger Station and Crystal Mountain showed a new layer of snow (orange image of Crystal Mountain below).

The lows this morning were extremely cold, with lows of 30 degrees Celsius in Washington State and 20 degrees Celsius in Oregon (see low temperature boxes below). Low temperatures in Oregon are very cold, with some locations dropping below 20 degrees Celsius.

To better understand how amazingly cold today is, below is a chart of the predicted difference from normal surface temperatures at 5pm PDT today.

The entire west is colder than usual, with conditions surprisingly cold in southeastern Oregon, with temperatures 20F colder than usual. Eastern Washington is also terribly cold.

Tailored to cold weather, UW’s high-resolution model is forecasting snowfall around the region, particularly heavy snow in southern BC and Alberta. (Total predicted snowfall through 8 p.m. Tuesday is shown below).

Fortunately, this cold-related upper-level low-pressure trough will disappear by Wednesday and significantly warmer temperatures will move in this week, creating near-ideal temperatures across the globe. area. To illustrate, here are the predicted temperatures at SeaTac, with a peak of 70 degrees Celsius for the whole week. Very beautiful and no rain forecast for the coming weekend.

The cold/wet weather has at least one major positive: The Northwest wildfires are essentially running below normal, and the extra humidity will significantly slow the fires this summer.