The year in weather – 2018

I’ve lost track of how many years I’ve been writing this monthly column about our weather, and climate and related issues and events. One thing I do like — and I admit I’m a bit of a facts-driven person — is gathering the weather data from the previous year and sharing it here. We’ll have to rely on data from the home weather station only, for now the “partial government shutdown” is affecting access to our local official weather station data. So, let’s take a look back and see what happened.

First, I’ll summarize the data for December 2018. High temperature for the month was 49.8˚F on the 18th, the low was on the 5th at 16.5˚ and the mean was 33.7˚. All-time high for December was 58˚ in 2007. The all-time low was -16˚ in 1968, while the all-time mean is 29.3˚. Our mean was 4.4˚ warmer than the all-time mean. A warm December, indeed. Precipitation for December yielded 1.01 inches of water, with a snowfall of 4.4 inches. The all-time mean precipitation for December is 1.39 inches and the all-time mean snowfall is 4.9 inches. The greatest snowfall for December was 27.8 inches in 1964.

Now, let’s look at weather data for 2018. Our high temperature was 106.5˚, occurring in August (all-time high temperature was 113˚ in 1939). The low temperature was 6.7˚, which occurred in February (all-time low for our area was -17˚, 1950). The mean temperature for 2018 was 51.6˚ (the all-time mean is 50.1˚). Precipitation data for the year was 11.44 inches (all-time mean is 10.72 inches) and our snowfall was 9.6 inches (all-time mean is 19.8 inches). Our maximum snowfall for a year was 50.8 inches in 1956. As for wind gusts, here at home we had a 41-mph gust on Dec. 29. To summarize 2018: 1.5˚F warmer than the all-mean temperature, 0.72 inches above the all-mean precipitation and 10.2 inches below the all-mean snowfall.

The Climate Prediction Center (CPC) has generally been accurate with its long-range outlook for our region these past months, specifically for our temperatures. Looking at the CPC outlook for January, February and March, here’s what is published: Look for above-normal temperatures and below-normal precipitation. As always, these outlooks are subject to change. The Washington State Climatologist office shares this comment about our snowpack: “Despite the warmer-than-normal temperatures throughout the state, snowpack built substantially in December, particularly at the higher elevation locations where the freezing level tended to stay below them. The wetter-than-usual conditions in the Olympics and the north Cascades also contributed to building our snowpack.” Locally, Moses Mountain, as of this writing, has 22 inches of snow on the ground.

Our friends at EarthSky share this about the planets in our January sky: “The two bright planets up before the sun are Venus (brighter) and Jupiter! Mars is the sole bright evening planet. Mercury fades from view as a morning planet in early January. Saturn becomes visible before sunup near the month’s end.”

Here’s hoping each of you has a great New Year!