Is it just me or are the PNW summers hotter and drier than they've used to be?

[Mopac1980]

Originally Posted by dubdpt

Question for the group. I used to live in Anacortes WA up until 2013 when we moved the family down to the Lake Tahoe area where we currently reside.

Has these last few summers with wildfire smoke been just over the last two summers, or has it been trending over the last 3-plus years since we left WA? I only recall a few days in total of fire smoke in my four summers in PNW from 2009-2013.

We have had a horrible summer of variable hazardous to clear air here in Tahoe from all the NorCal fires. I have asthma and we are contemplating if WA is the place we want to relocate back to and permanently reside, as Tahoe is not for us long-term.

We've had really bad air quality for a brief while in 2015 and a worse one again in 2017 and even worse again this year in 2018, this is in Washington State, luckily 2016 was a milder and wetter summer for us.

Oddly we've had fairly hot summers in 2013 and 2014 but never had any bad air quality although 2013 was a very stormy summer for us.

[grega94]

Originally Posted by CrazyDonkey

You're confusing the issue. I pointed to record average monthly highs as showing what certainly looks to be an emphatic climatic trend toward higher average monthly temperatures.

I also pointed to record daily highs as showing no discernible trend (or "noise"), which is what should be expected from mere weather.

I made no such assertion. You, on the other hand, relative to "100 years of summer max temps in Seattle" asserted that it was: "Not any hotter..."

You only do so to explain it away: "However that being said, the urban heat island effect probably plays a bigger role in increasing temperatures than the actual effect of global warming."

By all means, feel free to run a chart showing correlation between the number of "hot" days (annually, or seasonally) and average monthly highs.

Ok well at least we are in agreement that summers are indead getting hotter. As far as heat island effect, well I think the fact that the Seattle metro area went from 123,443 people in 1890 to 3,867,046 in 2017 can’t be ignored. I’m not denying global warming, but i’m just trying to account for everything. However after further research the urban heat island effects night time temperatures more than day time, so I’ll probably create a few graphs on low temps.

[CrazyDonkey]

I'm not saying that there is no correlation between the number of hot days and average monthly highs, but just that it is uncertain what that correlation might be. Correlation is, at the same time, not causation. What is weather vs what is climate is not always easy to sort out.

"Summer weather is getting 'stuck' due to Arctic warming": https://www.theguardian.com/environm...arctic-warming

Summer weather patterns are increasingly likely to stall in Europe, North America and parts of Asia, according to a new climate study that explains why Arctic warming is making heatwaves elsewhere more persistent and dangerous.

Rising temperatures in the Arctic have slowed the circulation of the jet stream and other giant planetary winds, says the paper, which means high and low pressure fronts are getting stuck and weather is less able to moderate itself.

The authors of the research, published in Nature Communications on Monday, warn this could lead to “very extreme extremes”, which occur when abnormally high temperatures linger for an unusually prolonged period, turning sunny days into heat waves, tinder-dry conditions into wildfires, and rains into floods.

[dubdpt]

Originally Posted by Mopac1980

We've had really bad air quality for a brief while in 2015 and a worse one again in 2017 and even worse again this year in 2018, this is in Washington State, luckily 2016 was a milder and wetter summer for us.

Oddly we've had fairly hot summers in 2013 and 2014 but never had any bad air quality although 2013 was a very stormy summer for us.

Thanks for the synopsis. It sure seems like wildfire smoke is becoming expected at some point during the summers. Hardly anyplace on the west coast is immune to it!

[Botev1912]

Originally Posted by MrJester

Hi folks,

Not a PNW resident at all, having lived all my life in Southern California. Although I have been to Seattle, Portland, and Vancouver, Canada. It was June last time I went to Seattle, 55 degrees, and raining. So I thought Summer was the dry season in the PNW; how often does it rain in the summer?

Also, my friend in Vancouver said they've been getting heat waves this summer. I know the PNW has very mild temps, so though the relative humidity is high, the dewpoint is actually very low, 55-60 degrees or so, but what about during the freak heat waves in Seattle? Does the humidity linger to create muggy conditions with 70+ dew points? Or does the humidity drop dramatically as temps soar? Over here in SoCal, we have had an abnormally humid summer with 90+ degree temps combined with 70+ dew points.

June is not really a summer month here but 55f and rainy is also not normal for June. Summer here is late June to mid-late September.

[Mopac1980]

While I don't think this summer was quite as hot compared to last year but I've felt we've had more unpleasant weather with all the fires and smoke we've had recently, fortunately the fall weather seems to have come earlier than usual this year.