Winter Weather Outlook Pt 2

Winter Weather Outlook Pt 2

Bob Larson
Bob Larson
With today's Fruit Grower Report, I'm Bob Larson. Our weather this year has been, record setting. We started with record-setting rainfall over the winter in many parts of the state followed by a warmer, drier summer than most, where even in soggy Seattle the record was broken with 55 consecutive days without rain.

Washington State Climatologist, Nick Bond says we should expect a reasonably wet La Nina Winter instead of having to worry about a Winter like we had a few years back...

NICK BOND ... "Certainly compared to '14-'15 when it was just so warm, we actually had near-normal amounts of precipitation, but it was so warm no snowpack and you could see the hardship there and I know the dryland wheat farmers really took it on the chin in 2015."

Bond says looking further out, the summer is more difficult to predict ...

NICK BOND ... "You know, really looking out into the crystal ball, or deep into it, and then it gets fuzzier and fuzzier, the forecast out of the Climate Prediction Center and, again, based on the trends, I'm pretty comfortable with those, is to have a summer on the warm side. Not necessarily, again just like we've had here in 2017, but compared to the historical means, on the warm side because, in part, that's what the models are saying and, in part, that's what the trends are indicating."

Bond says fall is our shortest season in terms of fall-like weather, and the most difficult to predict. But, with things already starting to cool off, especially in Eastern Washington, he expects real Autumn weather is just a few weeks away.

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