January 10, 8:00 pm
Cool Sunshine
The first sunshine in awhile graced our land today, but in spite of that, the pattern is beginning to change a bit again. Cooler weather is here and more could be on the way. Our high today was 47 at noon, but it cooled off pretty rapidly through the afternoon under the clear skies. This evening it is down to 34 right now, our coldest in some time.
The forecast is starting to bite off a bit on the idea that this blog has talked about a little bit lately - colder and chances of snow coming in about a week. Can't tell right now for sure how that will turn out, but our first threat of snow of the season could be starting to shape up. Something to keep our eyes on!
January 9, 9 AM
Review of 2011
We are awaiting rain today, and while it is overcast, rain does not look too imminent. The last few days have been cloudy, but dry, and rather dull in personality.
Sorry it has taken longer than expected, but I will finally give a little summary of 2011 from my perspective:
2011 In Review
Total Rain for 2011: 34.82"
Total Rain for 2010: 43.85"
Total Rain for 2009: 37.19"
Total Rain for 2008: 30.99"
Wettest Month for 2011: March (5.78")
Driest Month for 2011: August (.17")
Hottest Temperature in 2011: 92 degrees (Aug. 21)
Coldest Temperature in 2011: 19 degrees (Feb. 26)
Total Snow for 2011: about 3 inches, occuring in Feb. (about 5 inches in 2010)
The year was officially a La Nina year, which would be expected to bring more rain and cooler temperatures to us. However, the year was the second driest of the past four years (not much of a statistical sample, I agree) and not as cool overall as the year before. We had no real "cold snaps", other than a brief but unspectacular one in late February. The cooler temperatures seemed to mostly plague spring and summer. In many people's minds, summer failed to arrive this year. Rain did begin to fall as spring was arriving (March our wettest month) and held on too long into the summer. Our gardens struggled through the growing season due to too many clouds, too cool of temperatures and too damp for too long. The summer we did have arrived too late as well - September was a lovely month, but by then fall is in the air a bit gardens are "done" and vacation time is over for many of us. A switch seemed to be thrown at that point and while November brought an expected uptick in rain (5.09" as our second wettest month), for the most part fall and winter have not really produced much either. Very little in the way of "storms" and long dry stretches. December was cool, but way too dry for our good, flirting with setting dry records. Since this is again another La Nina year, we can maybe expect another wet/cool spring. I don't think anyone really looks forward to that prospect again.
January 5
January and the New Year are well underway now. I imagine that most of us are happy to be moving forward into seemingly uncharted land after life being "suspended" for the past many holiday weeks. The last couple months of the year always seem somewhat surreal. Most of our activities and focus seems to be holiday centered - special events, holiday prep of various sorts, get-togethers with others, often with people we may not see too much of otherwise, schedules we aren't used to, and more mundane, routine tasks being put off until "after the holidays". It is all fun and good while it is here, but I think we all reach a point where we suddenly feel like it is "enough". Time to put it all away for another year and we look forward to resuming our lives and ruts and moving on over the horizon to see what may lie there for us.
I am still in that process of leaving the old behind and moving forward. It has been a busy time with much going on. Christmas, but also many family activities, wedding planning, and getting the college kids back to school and settled; especially my oldest daughter who lives off campus and is so busy with life, and starting her second quarter of nursing school. I helped my mom get her Christmas stored away for another year, and now am onto my own. Progress has been made and I am happy with that, but a couple more days will be needed to finish restoring order around the house. But it does feel nice to be moving forward!
Weather-wise it has all seemed rather odd over the last many weeks. December was a weird month, basically. We did not get anywhere near the rain we should have. Only 1.83" fell for us; way below normal. For the first 2-3 weeks we had virtually no rain, but frosty fog (which at least was something happening), and just about no wind at all. We were on pace for the driest December ever, but a late surge of rain allowed us to avoid that record, but not by much. By contrast, on Christmas Day the wind did decide to blow and we recorded our highest wind in a long time - only 38 mph, but it, plus the higher winds around us were enough to cause numerous power outages that day, but not for us.
January has begun a bit more normally, however now it is running warmer than normal. We have had each day of January so far top out in the 50's, including a whopping 56 on the 1st. Rain has returned a bit better and so far we already have 1.08" rain this month - feels torential after that dismal rain production in December, which should be one of our wettest months of the year. Yesterday felt more on track for the times. It looked like Janaury ought to - a long fetch of steady rain socked us in for most of the day - .60" total - and the wind did rise again, up to 25 mph and a blustery evening. Felt nice. We need it - for nature and the water we need, and also for our souls to feel right with the world, even for only that day.
Nothing dramatic appears to be anywhere in view for weather for us. The first primroses are for sale in the nurseries. At this rate, spring doesn't seem too far-fetched. Could change.
DECEMBER STATS
Average High: 44
Average Low: 32
Highest Temperature: 53 (12/28)
Lowest Temperature: 25 (12/13)
Lowest High Temperature: 38 (12/12)
Wettest Day: Dec. 27 (.44")
Highest Wind: 38 mph (12/25)
Days of Measurable Rain: 20
Total Rain for December: 1.83"
Note:A comment about the days of rain: of the 20 days listed above, six of them were fog induced - enough fog to measure .01" in the bucket. Not really rain. And a few other days were barely above the .01, so really there were very few "rainy days". Usually in December it is hard to find a day when rain was not measured at all. Officially, normal rainfall in December is well over 5 inches for Seattle, and often it realizes a lot more than that. Soon I will add some comments about 2011 as a whole, but this is enough to digest for today.
JANUARY 5
Sunrise: 7:56 AM --- Sunset: 4:31 PM (PST)
(gaining 1 min. 19 sec. tomorrow)
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Updated: 04:09 GMT le 11 janvier 2012
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