Happy New Year!

 

2021 went out cold and snowy but 2022 may start a little warmer and rather wet. So this is the end of year blog where I not only wrap up last months stats but glance back at the whole of 2021 weather wise.

December 2021 was wet and frankly other than about double the normal snowfall it was pretty normal over all. Temps followed the typical dive through the month and were mostly average. The warmest day was the first day of the month with a balmy 59.8º. Some areas in the metro area were up above 60º and some daily record highs fell including mine. The chilliest temp came on the night of the 27th under cloudy skies and scattered snow showers with a crisp 23.1º a local daily record for me. That afternoon also recorded the coolest daytime high for the month at 29.5º That was also the coolest daytime high I have recorded any prior December 27th. The warmest overnight low was a 45.6º mark on the the first of the month that surely helped push that daytime temp to a daily record. Overall the observed averages for the month were L 35.61º and H 44.13º about 1º warmer than normal at both ends of the day. December yielded just 7 days with subfreezing temps. There were also just 7 days that failed to reach 40º as well. Despite the 9 days with measurable snowfall every day but one managed to get above freezing in the afternoon. 

Precipitation was a bit above average with 8.85 inches in the bucket including 6.6 inches of snow. 27 days in December had measurable precipitation including 9 days with snow. There were 10 days with more than a quarter inch of rain. The wettest day was the 19th with 1.8 inches in the bucket. Later that day it changed over to snow and dropped an inch of wet snow. 

So wrapping up 2021, we had a mild year really. Just 26 days that fell below freezing. Those are Northern California numbers! Not a single day dropped below 20º either. We had 52 days with overnight lows above 60º and 86 days with highs that failed to reach 40º. Only 2 days failed to get above the freezing mark. Mild indeed. 

The real story of 2021 was the all time record heatwave in which we broke the all time record high temperature three consecutive days and by large margins! This happened in JUNE of all months. On June 26th the all time record at my house of 106.5º fell with a 107.1º then the 27th it was 111.1º and then on the 28th the monster 115.2º mark hit. The weird part was that a town in Canada hit 117º and now has a higher all-time record than Las Vegas NV! That was some kind of strange atmospheric and heat lineup that only occurs every 500 years or so. 

We ended up with 5 days over 100º in 2021 and that ended a three year drought on 100 plus temps. We had an above average number of 90º degree marks at 19 for the year. The hottest day that scorcher 115.2º on June 28th the coldest was 23.1º just a few days ago on the 27th of December. We had a total of 19.35 inches of snow for the year, most of it falling in two events in February and last week. I had 42.72 inches of rain well below my typical 53 inches. 2021 delivered 95 sunny days, 146 rainy days including 14 days with snow and 43 days with more than 0.25 inch. One note to show how mild our 2021 was, Only 86 days had high temperatures below 50º so that says a lot about how mild the cooler half of the year was. The summer was even pretty mild if you take out that crazy heatwave in June.

Warm and Wet in Mid-Autumn

 

That title sums it up well, in fact this may be the warmest November I have on record, after 20 Novembers at this location. But this wasn't sunshine and hot levels of warm and in fact the all time record high for me at this location wasn't even close to being challenged. But it was consistent balmy for most of the month with a continue pipeline of war and wet systems dropping copious amounts of rain. It has been a long while since we had a proper Western Washington November, and this was it, although it was warmer than normal by a substantial mark. You may notice I have begun highlight warm and cold records on my chart that accompanies this blog post each month. Warm being red and cold being blue.

My twenty year average low and high for November is 38.85º L and 51.34º H. Last month it was 43.46º L and 54.89º H. Yes you read that right plus 5 and plus 3 respectively for the month. What was particularly interesting was the fact that I had 11 daily records fall, all on the warm side. Eleven daily records in ONE month is more than just unusual. I had 7 daily high records broken on the 13th, 14th, 15th, 27th, 28th, 29th, and 30th. The warmest of these was the monthly high mark of 65.7º on the 14th, well off my November record of 72.1º. I also had 4 daily record warm minimum temps. That is the overnight low being warm. Those occurrences were the 11th, 14th, 29th, and 30th. The warmest overnight low last month came on the 14th when the mercury dipped to just 58.9º. A few miles away at PDX the overnight low that night was above 60º in MID NOVEMBER! The month was not entirely absent of chilly temps however. I dod have a 3 sub-freezing mornings the chilliest of which was a mark of 29.7º on the morning of the 22nd. No daily low records were so much as challenged. The chilliest afternoon high was a rather typical 45.3º on the 21st. November delivered just 3 sub-freezing temps and only 8 nights dipped into the 30s. That's nuts! 

November gave us just 1 sunny day and the rest were partly cloudy of overcast. 21 days of rain which isn't that unusual for November, but a bit gloomy none-the-less. Not a lick of snow fell but snow levels did come down to 1500 feet a couple of times. I had 8 days with more than a quarter inch of rain and 2 days with more than an inch including the wettest day of the month, the 12th when 2.01 inches fell. The total rainfall came in a tad under the historical average but still managed a solid 7.32 inches in my bucket.

Today it is a nice sunny afternoon and sitting at about 55º so December is off to a warm start as well. But December is when things tend to get chilly, so we shall see if Captain Balmy continues to rule.