Cooler-than-normal weather stalls summer activities out of the gate

Gardens grow slowly; opening of hiking trails is delayed

By John Dodge | The Olympian • Published June 20, 2008

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The calendar says summer has arrived, but the effects of an unusually chilly spring linger on the landscape of Western Washington.

Summer solstice

Summer arrives in South Sound at 4:59 p.m. today on what could turn out to be the warmest day this month.

With the sun perched over the Tropic of Cancer, 23.5 degrees north of the equator, the northern hemisphere experiences its longest day of the year. Sunrise today was at 5:16 a.m., and sunset is at 9:10 p.m.

The arrival of summer is the summer solstice, which is derived from the Latin words sol (sun) and sistit (stands still).

The Olympian
By the numbers

• 8.5 degrees: How much cooler it was on average from June 1 to June 19 than the normal 68 to 71 degrees

• 56 degrees: The daytime high for June 10, which tied the lowest on record, set in 1990

• 37 degrees: The nighttime low for June 15, which tied the lowest on record, set in 1971

• Daily average temperature: The last time it topped normal in Seattle and Olympia was May 28.

•In April: The average daytime highs were about 4 degrees cooler than normal, but only 0.2 degrees cooler than normal in May.

•Precipitation this year is 19.75 inches, which is 6.27 inches less than normal.

Source: National Weather Service

Garden vegetables that should be thriving are stuck in neutral, waiting for soil temperatures to warm.

"My tomatoes are about one month behind," Olympia gardener Gary Burk said Thursday.

Likewise, Spooner Farms' strawberry field on Yelm Highway, which had been expected to open mid-month, has been open sporadically. U-pick is expected to start next week.

And backcountry hiking in higher elevations is on hold until weather warms and snow melts.

"Trails above 2,000 to 3,000 feet in the Cascade and Olympic mountains are still covered with snow," said Lauren Braden of the Washington Trails Association. "That's pretty low for this time of year."

June has been so cold that the daytime highs in Olympia mimic those of April, and homeowners find themselves reluctantly firing up furnaces normally dormant by this time of year. April and May also were slightly cooler than normal.

"Actually, it's been cooler than normal since mid-March," said Cliff Mass, an atmospheric-sciences professor at the University of Washington in Seattle.

He counted up how many days the thermometer reached 60 degrees or more in Seattle from March 11 to June 9 each year since 1894. This year, it was 23, the second-fewest in 115 years.

What's happening? A low-pressure trough has been perched over the region this spring, allowing weather to flow in from the northwest, instead of from the west and southwest, Mass explained. Northwest flows are cooler.

"It's been extraordinarily persistent," he said, adding that its persistence probably is tied to cool Pacific Ocean water conditions known as La Nina, which typically translates into cooler weather in the Northwest.

La Nina is weakening, but the 90-day forecast for Western Washington calls for below-normal temperature and near-normal rainfall, according to the Climate Prediction Center of the National Oceanic and Atmospheric Agency.

Mass scoffed at suggestions that the cool weather casts doubt on the veracity of global warming.

"You can't draw any conclusions about one year or one location; that's nonsense," he said. "The globe can still be warming up over time."

John Dodge covers the environment and energy for The Olympian. He can be reached at 360-754-5444 or jdodge@theolympian.com.