May 7, 2024

Stair-Stepping to Summer

By Sam Pham, Jake Stevenson, and Haley Furutani

Hey Huskies! We hope you are having a splendid week 7 so far. Aside from spotty showers across western Washington this evening, we will be seeing a dry trend for the remainder of the week and it will begin to heat up, possibly reaching the 80 degree mark by Saturday.

As for now, we have mostly cloudy skies with mild temperatures in the upper 50s. Sunbreaks throughout the afternoon will reveal a sneak peek of the blue sky that we will see in the next few days ahead.

A quick look at our future radar shows signs of a few leftover light showers that will continue to diminish throughout the afternoon and evening. Most of these showers are concentrated on the Kitsap Peninsula and South Sound regions.

We will experience some stair-stepping temperatures for the rest of the week, where temperatures in the region will climb from the 50s today up to the 80s by Friday and Saturday. Apart from a few clouds mixed in on Wednesday, we will see a lot of full glorious sunshine this week. Average highs for this time of year in Seattle are in the mid 60s, so this upcoming weekend may seem like we are skipping spring and heading straight towards summer. If you have any outdoor plans, you are in luck!

Although we are gearing up for warmth and we’ve already been experiencing what feels like a dryer spring we are not yet in drought conditions in Western Washington. At the moment Seattle is classified as a drought level of DO or Abnormally dry. This rating does not mean that Seattle is in a drought yet simply that rainfall is below average, soil moisture may be below normal and that there is potential for drought to form in the coming weeks or months. The DO rating is no cause for concern now as we are coming out of the wetter half of the year but it is important to pay attention to our drought monitor as we march into summer and then wildfire season. The percentage of the state that is abnormally dry is of concern for no other reason than it is a warning sign of potentially a hot dry summer.

 

We hope that you have a warm and joyous rest of your week huskies! Lavish in the interlude between midterms and finals or (in the case of our double midterm readers), get out an enjoy some sun-rays to take your mind off of studying.