May 20, 2022

Forecast: May 20th, 2022

Last updated 6:44 PM Friday, May 20th, 2022

By Preston Donion

Hello and Happy Friday, Dawgs!

It has been a pretty nice day by recent standards, and these pleasant conditions look to continue into the weekend, giving us a taste of spring that we’ve waited so patiently for! Well, maybe not patiently, but we sure have been waiting! After climbing to 73° on April 7th, we haven’t broken 70°  again, and only climbed into the 60s nine times. Getting to the sixties just 21% of days isn’t a great percentage, and that’s almost certainly not a passing score on any of the late midterms you may have been navigating this week! The weather seems to get away with subpar performances more than we do…Anyways, if this has felt anomalously cold, it sure has been! In fact, May 20th is the first day on average that Seattle hits 80°! While I can’t bring that kind of warmth to the table today, I’m happier about the contents of my forecast today than I’ve been in weeks! 

It starts with the gorgeous day that’s winding down, where we climbed into the low 60s under mostly sunny skies across the region. It’s a perfect day for spring sports, and our Huskies have certainly taken advantage of that so far, with the red-hot baseball team winning both games of their doubleheader, and the softball team starting their championship pursuit as I write this. As night rolls in — quite late nowadays, I might add: 8:46 PM — temperatures will drop off under clear skies, bringing us down to the low 40s in the early hours of Saturday. After that though, another spectacular sunny day is on tap, with highs reaching the upper 60s for most locations! To make the day even more magical, we have a rather unique setup to add some excitement. 

As you can see in the map above from WeatherBELL, reflective of 10 AM tomorrow, we have two areas of high pressure, one to either side of us. Air moves from high pressure to low pressure, so that means air will be moving out of the northeast, towards western Washington and further to our south. This northeasterly flow will bring unstable air up the mountains and set us up for some potential thunderstorms, especially over higher terrain! We typically see westerly flow, meaning air moving in off the ocean, which is usually wet and stable. This air from further inland carries the potential for relatively potent storm systems by local standards, so keep an eye on the sky and head indoors when thunder roars! That being said, these storm cells should mainly remain over the mountains, so our sunny day isn’t likely to be spoiled in the lowlands. Still, it may be worth watching the eastern skies to see that convective action take place! We will keep our social media updated if any cells are headed into the Puget Sound region, so stay tuned with us there. 

Looking past Saturday’s fun, we get an even warmer Sunday that could take the crown as the warmest day of the year for now! I don’t anticipate it getting quite that warm, but Seattle and much of the Central Sound should crack 70°. As the day goes on, clouds will move in, but we’ll enjoy mostly blue skies for the afternoon. With the arrival of the clouds, we’ll retain our heat overnight, keeping us near 50° into the wee hours of Monday morning — Just one degree shy of last Thursday’s high temperature!

We’ll cool off into the beginning of week nine, but remain dry until a little system brings some light rain on Wednesday. We’ll be fairly gray most days, but the silver lining to these clouds is the comfortable temperatures: each day should reach the mid to upper 60s, depending on just how much sun gets through. Some early indicators suggest a cooldown in the long range, but we can look forward to a mostly seasonal final full week of May! We hope your classes are going well, and that you can get out and enjoy the fantastic weekend ahead! Have fun, and we’ll be back with more tomorrow!

Reach Forecaster Preston Donion at theuwdawgcast@uw.edu or on Twitter @PrestonDonion.