Tagged: sunshine

May 6 isn’t known for much. Perhaps it languishes in the shadow of its older sibling, Cinco de Mayo.

But at least this year, May 6 saw something special when the mercury climbed to a record-breaking high of 87 degrees at Sea-Tac Airport around 5 p.m., crushing the past record high of 79 set in 1957.

"We have an extraordinary weekend ahead," says KPLU's weather expert Cliff Mass. "And In fact, it's probably not going to rain until at least next weekend as well."

Friday will warm up to lower 70s with “no precipitation anywhere,” says Mass, a professor of atmospheric science at the University of Washington. “And it just cranks up over the weekend."

Don't credit global warming. And don't call it karma. Sometimes, weather patterns just lock in place, says KPLU weather expert Cliff Mass.

Today, the pattern is perfection. Sunny, clear skies, with temperatures in the upper 60s, occasionally breaking 70, says Mass, a professor of Atmospheric Sciences at the University of Washington. And seven days in a row of that, stretching through next Thursday. It could change at the end of next week, but maybe not, he says.

Western Washington is wrapping up its driest August ever, says KPLU weather expert Cliff Mass, a professor of Atmospheric Sciences at the University of Washington.

And, with no precipitation in sight for the next two weeks, Mass says we may even break an all-time streak for the most consecutive days without rain. The record is 51 days, set in 1951.

"We are thirty-eight days in, right now," he says. "So, we certainly have a shot at the big record."

The forecast is for plenty of sun for today and days to come.

As KPLU forecaster and University of Washington professor Cliff Mass put it in his blog: It happens almost every year, and we sometimes lose faith that it will occur.

"Often, as in this year, it happens right after July 4th, and almost certainly by mid-July, resulting in the oft-noted statement by the meteorological cognoscenti that summer starts on July 12th in western Washington."