We are in the midst of one of the most extreme cold periods in Northwest history.
Many locations are breaking daily and MONTHLY records for the coldest daily maximum temperature in April. And to drive home, blizzards were observed around Seattle (see WSDOT image from Auburn this morning).
Consider the two-day average temperature for April. The last two days were the COLDEST in Seattle in April for the entire record (77 years).
Olympia? The last two days are the coldest in April:
Pasco? Monday and Tuesday are also the coldest times:
Yakima? The past two days have been the coldest.
Daily and monthly records are falling across the region. Review Monday, April 11th..
Daily records for coldest maximum temperatures have fallen in the region (see below)
The more impressive MONTH record also fell that day.
What about low temperatures today?
Below freezing across Washington and Oregon with teenagers in the mountains. This is April…we’re experiencing late December temperatures.
Want even more extreme temperatures? The western slopes of the Rockies are in single digits and even below zero this morning.
Incredibly, daily highs barely rise to normal lows for this time of year.
Even more impressive, the record cold we are experiencing right now is almost as unusual as the heat wave in June last year. But where are the attribution reports? Media stories about the record cold?
Want warmer temperatures? You can try Siberia! Believe it or not, in eastern Siberia it is warmer than parts of our region (see below, showing temperatures tomorrow)
This cold wave is associated with an unusually deep depression over our region. It’s the result of natural variability – there’s no reason to think global warming/climate change has anything to do with it.
As illustrated by a number generated by the US EPA, cold spells are on the decline around the western US – EXACTLY what you would expect with global warming.
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Reminder: I’ll be doing a special session for Patreon supporters of this blog/podcast on Saturday at 10am. Come to your question….and I’ll talk more about cold snap.
