Jesse Risley
Staff member
In what will go down as one of the best -- or worst -- winters on record, depending on what you want out of a Seattle winter, now there will be some meteorological trophies to go along with the memories.
Seattle has set its record for all-time warmest February since official measurements began at Sea-Tac Airport. The average temperature (high temperature plus low temperature, divided by two) was 48.8 degrees narrowly edging 1977's record at 48.7. (And I mean narrowly. Had Saturday just been one degree cooler, it would have been a tied record instead.)
It's the 12th consecutive month with above normal temperatures - the last time we had an official cool month was February 2014. And it keeps the recent pattern going of setting all-time heat records every-other month (October and December, 2014 were also record warmest.)
The 27 days of February with high at 50 degrees or warmer also ties a record, twice done in 1968 and 1977.
It's also the warmest February by average low temperature (by more than a full degree), and sixth-warmest by average high temperature.
Warmest winter (by far!) on record too
While winter officially runs Dec. 21-March 21, "meteorological winter" runs Dec. 1 - Feb. 28 so we can now measure how winter stands up, statistically. And it was a doozy.
This winter will go down as the warmest at Sea-Tac -- by far. The average temperature of Dec. 1 to Feb. 28 was 46.4 degrees, obliterating the previous record for warmest winter on 1991-92 of 45.0 degrees. Normal is just 41.2. This comes on the heels of the second-warmest summer -- and all makes sense when you consider 2014 was the warmest year overall on record at Sea-Tac.
We also claimed the trophy by using average high temperature. The new record is 51.4, breaking the old record of 50.8 set in 1991-92. Average is: 46.5.
Warmest autumn-winter combined!
With the consistent warmth, you can pick any period over the last 14 months and probably get a heat record, but let's do essentially the rainy season -- October through February. Yep! Records broken here too...
Source and stats available here: http://www.komonews.com/weather/blo...mest-February-winter-on-record-294516031.html
Seattle has set its record for all-time warmest February since official measurements began at Sea-Tac Airport. The average temperature (high temperature plus low temperature, divided by two) was 48.8 degrees narrowly edging 1977's record at 48.7. (And I mean narrowly. Had Saturday just been one degree cooler, it would have been a tied record instead.)
It's the 12th consecutive month with above normal temperatures - the last time we had an official cool month was February 2014. And it keeps the recent pattern going of setting all-time heat records every-other month (October and December, 2014 were also record warmest.)
The 27 days of February with high at 50 degrees or warmer also ties a record, twice done in 1968 and 1977.
It's also the warmest February by average low temperature (by more than a full degree), and sixth-warmest by average high temperature.
Warmest winter (by far!) on record too
While winter officially runs Dec. 21-March 21, "meteorological winter" runs Dec. 1 - Feb. 28 so we can now measure how winter stands up, statistically. And it was a doozy.
This winter will go down as the warmest at Sea-Tac -- by far. The average temperature of Dec. 1 to Feb. 28 was 46.4 degrees, obliterating the previous record for warmest winter on 1991-92 of 45.0 degrees. Normal is just 41.2. This comes on the heels of the second-warmest summer -- and all makes sense when you consider 2014 was the warmest year overall on record at Sea-Tac.
We also claimed the trophy by using average high temperature. The new record is 51.4, breaking the old record of 50.8 set in 1991-92. Average is: 46.5.
Warmest autumn-winter combined!
With the consistent warmth, you can pick any period over the last 14 months and probably get a heat record, but let's do essentially the rainy season -- October through February. Yep! Records broken here too...
Source and stats available here: http://www.komonews.com/weather/blo...mest-February-winter-on-record-294516031.html