Seattle weather: July was coolest in years, but what about August?

It was the coolest July in Western Washington in four years, though it might not seem that way since it was still warmer than the average Seattle temperatures. And August is looking to be a bit of a repeat — a little hotter than normal.

“The key word for July is ‘normal,’” said Jay Albrecht, a forecaster with the National Weather Service in Seattle. “It is the coolest that we’ve had in a few years so it seems like it is even cooler than what it is. And the official forecast is a tilt towards above normal for August, but there’s some question there. We could end up closer to normal for August.”

#Seattle climate for July 2016: Avg high temp of 76 degrees. Still warmer than normal, but coolest July in 4 years. #wawx

— NWS Seattle (@NWSSeattle) August 1, 2016

“Normal” can be relative, but what Albrecht is speaking to is the average highs and lows in a month. At the start of July, he forecasted that the month would be a little wetter and cooler than in recent years, and he was fairly correct. The region saw significant rain in the first half of July, and there were a couple showers later on. That added up to .72 inches of rain in July — the average is .7. And then there were the temperatures. Western Washington has been quite hot over the past few years. Last year, that was mainly because of the infamous “blob” in the Pacific Ocean — an area of warm water that affected weather.

While July edged just above typical, it wasn’t because of the hotter days. Rather, it wasn’t as cold at night — by about 2 degrees.

“The daytime temperatures were pretty close to normal,” Albrecht said. “The normal average high temperature for the month of July is 75.8 degrees. We were at 76 degrees. That’s right in the noise. Where we ended up a little bit warmer than normal for average temperature was because our minimum temperatures were above normal. Our normal minimum temperature is about 55.6 for the month. And our minimum temperature averaged 57.6.”

August

Temperatures are dancing around the averages for August, which means we will have stretches of highs and lows — mostly lows.

“The first couple weeks of August could start off being a little cooler than normal,” Albrecht said. “The official forecast right now is for odds to be above normal temperatures in August. Over the next week or so it does not look warmer than normal. We might hit 80 one or two days in the next week or so, but we’ll have some days when we’ll stay in the 60s.”

The latter part of August will likely see higher temperatures.

Just like July — the month of August is expected to be warmer than normal in #Seattle. #wawxpic.twitter.com/LvxlWtmkPn

— NWS Seattle (@NWSSeattle) August 1, 2016

Seattle weather is one thing. While Western Washington has experienced its first “normal” summer in years, Albrecht notes that most of the hot weather has been concentrated around southeast Washington.

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