January 26, 2023

Forecast: 26 January 2023

Forecast: 26 January 2023.

By Raphael Bakin.

Good afternoon, Huskies!

I would first like to start out this blog with a piece of good news: Last night marked the first sunset after 17:00 of this new year; sunset won’t be earlier than that time for the next 280 days. While day length increases in the end of January and beginning of February happen in all Northern Hemisphere locations, the weather in Seattle often does not reflect that, with February sometimes being cooler than January. 

Most of our recent weather has been cloudy, but with only limited precipitation, due to that stubborn ridge of high pressure. Today looks like it will follow that pattern, with temperatures staying in the mid—40s almost all day. Two pronounced changes to this pattern will soon come up. First, a weak front will come in on Friday and bring some showers, and push the temperatures down to the lower—40s. And a trough on Saturday will cause heavier showers.

The real noticeable change will be the second one, though. As the trough dissipates, it will push in much colder arctic air from Canada. This will drop the temperature to below freezing on Saturday night, and it will struggle to even reach 40° on Sunday. True to its original name, Sunday will indeed be a sunny day (in January in Seattle!) but COLD. Temperatures on Sunday night will likely be some of the lowest of the year and could drop to about 25°. This does mean that ice will be a threat on roads and bridges. This weekend will satisfy both the desires of the pluviophiles and heliophiles, but comes at the expense of people who have cryophobia.

Next Monday will be just as cold and sunny as Sunday, with daytime temperatures in the upper 30s and overnight temperatures dipping to the upper 20s again. This arctic air mass will remain in place until Tuesday afternoon, when another system arrives to scour it away.

With regards to the snow situation, there is good news and bad news. The upcoming forecast is good news for skiers — ski resorts should have plenty of fresh snow to enjoy. But people who like lowland snow will likely come out disappointed. It is very unlikely at this point, but the only non—mountainous area with even a possibility of snow is the area between Olympia and Kelso because, without access to water, they will drop to even lower temperatures from Saturday evening through Tuesday.

It’s the classic struggle — either we get subfreezing air OR we get precipitation, rarely both at the same time. As for the long range, maybe there’s still a hope of possible lowland snow…? NOAA’s Climate Prediction Center has stated that they think February will feature below—normal temperature AND above—normal precipitation!

The idea of December and January being mostly free of lowland snow and February containing some lowland snow isn’t that far—fetched; a similar situation happened in the Pacific Northwest in 2019.

At the Dawgcast, we hope that having a sunny Sunday, Monday, and a partly cloudy Tuesday morning, as well as the increasing daylight length, will help power other students through their difficult classes.