Frigid weather sees coldest October day for Seattle in years
Oct 30, 2019, 6:31 AM | Updated: 3:16 pm
Wednesday lows for Western Washington. (NWS Seattle)
(NWS Seattle)
Somewhere, a monkey’s paw is curling, after someone wished for an early end to October rain. The Puget Sound region’s wet weather may be gone, but it’s been replaced by some of the coldest October weather we’ve seen in years.
Freezing temperatures set in for ‘next several days’ in Puget Sound region
Clear skies have brought temperatures in the 20s in parts of Western Washington, including reported lows under 30 degrees in parts of the Puget Sound area on Wednesday morning. Other parts of the region even saw temperatures dip under 20 degrees.
Seattle’s record low for the day is 30 degrees, which still stands, according to the National Weather Service in Seattle. Quillayute and Hoquiam were two degrees shy of their records (24 in 1972 and 29 in 2002).
This also marks the coldest weather we’ve seen since early-March, and Seattle’s coldest October morning in over a decade, according to Seattle Weather Blog’s Justin Shaw.
If it feels especially dry outside, that’s because it is. According to University of Washington climate scientist Cliff Mass, the dew point — a measure of water vapor in the air — dipped below zero at Sea-Tac Airport Tuesday morning.
Wednesday marks the coldest temperatures we’ll see all week, but the National Weather Service still notes that frigid weather will be in the forecast for the “next several days.”
‘Dice may be loaded’ for November snow in Seattle
On Monday, temperatures dropped into the 20s and 30s across the Puget Sound region in the early morning hours. Seattle’s low of 34 degrees to start the week was a full 10 degrees below normal for the month.
All this could be the precursor to what UW climate scientist Cliff Mass predicts will be a “very active winter” for Western Washington, spurred by an unusually early “Arctic express.”
