Warmest Weather of The Year On Tap

Warmest Weather of The Year On Tap

Hey Pacific Northwest, wake up! It is time to finally get out and enjoy the warmest weather of the year coming to a city near you tomorrow (Friday). A ridge of high pressure will be in place just long enough to give folks a chance to mow that soggy lawn and maybe even get that first sunburn of the year. Temperatures will be in the mid to upper 70’s in the Willamette Valley. The greater Seattle area will see temperatures approaching 70 degrees on Friday, Seattle has yet to reach 70 degrees this calendar year. Seattle has only recorded 10 days this calendar year above 60 degrees, through Wednesday. East of the Cascades temperatures will range from the 60’s to as high as almost 80 degrees in the Columbia basin on Friday. The coast will get in on the action as well, with plenty of afternoon sunshine. It will feel more like June or July when compared to the record setting cold and wet weather we have experienced all spring. The warm up will be short lived however, as another trough of low pressure slides into the region on Saturday and hangs around the rest of the weekend.

Even though it will be warm both today and Friday, we are still well below normal on the number of high temperatures at or above 70 degrees so far this calendar year. Portland, for instance, has recorded just four days at or above 70 degrees this calendar year. Portland normally sees its first 80 degree temperature of the year by May 8th of each year. Portland’s latest occurrence of their first 80 degree temperature (at the airport) was set just last June 12th, besting the old record of June 9th set in 1991.” Here is a quick look at several stations around the Pacific Northwest along with the meager number of times they have reached 70 degrees or higher so far this calendar year, though yesterday (May 18th) —

Number of 70+ Temperatures So Far This Year

Portland – 4
Seattle (Sea-Tac) – None yet (only 10 days above 60)
Vancouver, WA – 4
Salem – 2
Eugene – 1
Redmond, OR – 4

Medford – 7
Astoria – None yet (only 5 days above 60)
Olympia – 1
Spokane – 3
Yakima – 9
Hillsboro – 3
Troutdale – 4

Stay Tuned!
Steve Pierce
http://www.piercevideo.com/weather.shtml

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Steve Pierce

Steve Pierce

Steve Pierce is widely known as Oregon and Washington's "go-to-guy" when it comes to fast, accurate historical meteorological research and forecasts. Steve is currently the President of the Oregon Chapter of the American Meteorological Society (AMS). Steve is also recognized as a regional weather commentator and blogger who can be heard on local radio stations and seen in print media outlets across the Pacific Northwest. His Weather Blog is hosted by the Columbian Newspaper in Vancouver. Check it out! He is a third generation resident of Vancouver, Washington and holds a degree in Communications. Both sets of Steve's grandparents migrated to Vancouver during World War II. One set traveled from Lenox, Iowa to work in the Kaiser Shipyards supporting the war effort. The other set came to Vancouver from Olympia, Washington to work as educators for the rapidly expanding Vancouver School District. When the war was over, both sets of grandparents decided to stay in Vancouver and continue raising their families, as did thousands of other families at the time. Those who are most familiar with Steve can attest to the fact that weather is his true passion. His love for "all things weather" began at the age of 7 when Mt. St. Helens erupted in 1980. He was fascinated with which direction the ash plumes were headed. Then came the very powerful windstorm of Friday, November 13, 1981, also referred to as the "Friday the 13th" storm. This was the strongest storm to hit the Portland / Vancouver area since the great Columbus Day Storm of 1962! At age 11, he was asked to publish an extended weather forecast for his elementary school's weekly newsletter. In the 1980's, at age 14, Steve was the youngest of KGW-TV's local "weather watchers" and would phone in his daily Vancouver weather stats to then television meteorologist Jim Little for use on-air. Steve has lived through all of the major Pacific Northwest weather events of the past 30 years, and then some. The most notable events include; the bitterly cold winter of 1978-1979, the record setting snow storms of January 1980, the summer heat wave of August 1981, the windstorms of November 1981 and December 1995, the severe arctic blast of February 1989, the record flood of February 1996, the historic ice storm of January 2004, the Vancouver tornado of January 2008 and the record setting snow storm of Christmas 2008. Not to mention every Mt. St. Helens volcanic eruption in between. With access to the most extensive set of historical weather records available to date, Steve has personally designed and integrated a proprietary system that gives him the ability to quickly locate and manipulate weather data as far back as the 1800's. As one local Meteorologist put it, "Steve has fast access to historical weather data that is needed for media, agriculture, business, personal, historical and other climatological needs. He can quickly manipulate the data in many different ways. His forecasts are also quite accurate, especially at longer lead times." Steve also provides local storm assessments, narratives and weather presentations to the general public, as requested. In his spare time, Steve enjoys spending time with his family, the outdoors, vacationing at his family's coastal cabin and just relaxing! By the way, do you like your weather on the "extreme" side? So does Steve! Whether it is collecting damage assessment data & photos after record setting 125 mph winds at the coast in December 2007, being one of the first on the scene after the January 2008 Vancouver tornado, or feeling (literally) the awesome power of 100 mph wind gusts at Oregon's Crown Point in January 2010, Steve has experienced it all! As Steve says, "don't just love weather, live weather!" Check out Steve's personal weather website at: http://www.piercevideo.com/weather.shtml

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