Records at the Olympia Regional Airport show Olympia has received a paltry 0.10 inch of precipitation through Dec. 17, said Dennis D’Amico, meteorologist for the National Weather Service. The average December total is 7.5 inches, and last year Olympia saw 9.35 inches of precipitation. The driest December on record is 2.5 inches, a total this December isn’t on pace to reach.
“We do not have any big storms on the horizon,” D’Amico said. “We do have some precipitation, but nothing super-heavy.” The Weather Service’s forecast calls for a chance of rain every day through Christmas Day.
And though the region is in a La Niña weather pattern, a constant ridge of high pressure has been deflecting storms, giving the region quiet and stable weather.
“This time of the year … it just means not only dry but keeps the cooler air denser and dropped in the lowlands,” D’Amico said.
That cooler air has made this December the fifth-coldest on record so far, with temperatures in Olympia more than 4 degrees below normal through last week, according to the NWS.
That has chilly homeowners turning to their wood stoves for relief, which contributes to elevated air-pollution levels, D’Amico said. The increased levels have prompted multiple burn bans in recent weeks. December burn bans aren’t common, D’Amico said.
The Puget Sound Clean Air Agency publishes a daily air-quality index on its website, www.pscleanair.org/airq/basics/aqi.aspx. It measures air quality on a scale of 0 to 500, with 0 being best and 500 being described as “Health warnings of emergency conditions. The entire population is more likely to be affected.”
Today’s forecast is for a level between 51 and 100, which is defined as, “Air quality is acceptable; however, for some pollutants there may be a moderate health concern for a very small number of people who are unusually sensitive to air pollution.”
Unsurprisingly, snow depth is down on Mount Rainier. It was at 57 inches Sunday at Paradise, down from 83 inches on the same date last year, said Mount Rainier National Park dispatcher Matt Medford.
D’Amico said that despite the slow start to winter weather, La Niña still is expected to be a player in the winter weather season, meaning lower temperatures and higher precipitation. La Niña is weather phenomenon characterized by cooler ocean temperatures, which results in increased precipitation and lower temperatures to the Northwest.
“Last year La Niña got off to a slow start … we really didn’t have anything going until January,” he said.
And for those dreaming of a white Christmas, it’s not looking good.
“(There’s) nothing to indicate even if we have precipitation, that it would be cold enough to support snow to sea level,” he said.
Olympia has had snow on the ground on Christmas Day in recent years, but D’Amico said the last time Olympia recorded snowfall on Christmas was 1990.
Nate Hulings: 360-754-5476
nhulings@theolympian.com
www.theolympian.com/outsideoly
Staff writer Brian Sandford contributed to this report.
