Well not this year...
Local headlines:
Local headlines:
Does it seem like you can measure the amount of summer weather we've had this year with a stopwatch?
Turns out, you probably can. In fact, head to see the latest blockbuster at the theater and Seattle's accumulative summer would be over and done long before the credits rolled.
I've been curious since most of our warmest days as far as official high temperatures go don't seem to stay warm very long -- for example, the high on Friday was officially 76 at Sea-Tac Airport, but it was 63 a few hours later when the rain arrived. Or on July 2, it was 81 at 6 p.m. but 71 two hours later and 64 at 9 p.m.
So if someone was to someday go back and look in the weather logs, it might have looked like Friday was a nice warm day. But it sure didn't feel like it at the time. Plenty of our other warm days have quickly cooled with the strong evening sea breezes or marine pushes.
That got me to thinking -- just how long has it been *really* warm this summer in Seattle?
While Sea-Tac Airport only reports temperatures on the hour, the University of Washington Atmospheric Sciences Department keeps a minute-by-minute log of the weather station atop their roof on the Seattle campus. And since the UW is in the heart of Seattle, while the airport is more like the lower-left shin, I figure this could be an accurate representation of what a true Seattle person would have felt this summer.
The mission: Find out how many minutes it's been at 80 degrees or warmer this year-- what I would call a true warm summer day in Seattle.
The answer: 78 minutes.
Imp-
Turns out, you probably can. In fact, head to see the latest blockbuster at the theater and Seattle's accumulative summer would be over and done long before the credits rolled.
I've been curious since most of our warmest days as far as official high temperatures go don't seem to stay warm very long -- for example, the high on Friday was officially 76 at Sea-Tac Airport, but it was 63 a few hours later when the rain arrived. Or on July 2, it was 81 at 6 p.m. but 71 two hours later and 64 at 9 p.m.
So if someone was to someday go back and look in the weather logs, it might have looked like Friday was a nice warm day. But it sure didn't feel like it at the time. Plenty of our other warm days have quickly cooled with the strong evening sea breezes or marine pushes.
That got me to thinking -- just how long has it been *really* warm this summer in Seattle?
While Sea-Tac Airport only reports temperatures on the hour, the University of Washington Atmospheric Sciences Department keeps a minute-by-minute log of the weather station atop their roof on the Seattle campus. And since the UW is in the heart of Seattle, while the airport is more like the lower-left shin, I figure this could be an accurate representation of what a true Seattle person would have felt this summer.
The mission: Find out how many minutes it's been at 80 degrees or warmer this year-- what I would call a true warm summer day in Seattle.
The answer: 78 minutes.
Imp-
