2021 Wraps Up On A Dry Note

The first week of winter has felt very winter like, thanks to a strong northerly flow out of Canada which had dropped some temperatures into the single digits, and even below zero overnight.

“It’s been cold, a lot colder in northern Washington, and then it kind of moderates as it moves across Oregon and down in to California," said Marilyn Lohmann, meteorologist with the National Weather Service. "But more unusual with this is that the flow has been just right so that the west side of the Cascades are also seeing these pretty cold temperatures.”

Lohmann noted that most models expect these colder temperatures to start to dissipate this weekend. Lohmann added dry soil moisture conditions have been a constant for most of 2021, and that trend continued during the final days of fall and the first days of winter. So, when will we see some rain and snow to turn the drought situation around?

Lohmann does not expect that until the cold temperatures move out.

“Any measurable [precipitation] will really wait until we get that storm pattern to change back to more of a westerly flow and that looks to be as we head into next week.  While we’ll probably end the month on an above normal note, these last seven to 14 days have been considerably dry again.  So that kind of keeps us right where we’ve been at in regards to the drought.”

What are some of the biggest weather stories of the year? The heat of June?  The nearly yearlong drought? Snow accumulations? Listen to our Ag Weather In Depth Podcast for Lohmann’s response:

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