You hear it each year when people (myself included) start whining, wondering when summer weather will finally get here. Responders tend to counter with that old saying, “Summer doesn’t start in Seattle until July 5th.”
Well, if you were in need of some summer weather this week, you would’ve found it in the oddest place. There was no need to head south to find summer. Boarding an Alaskan cruise from downtown Seattle was all it took to find some nice, summer-like June weather. Who’d of thought?
Anchorage hit a record high temperature 81 degrees on Tuesday, June 18, 2013. North of Anchorage, the cities of Talkeetna and Palmer hit 89 and 78 degrees. Even Seward, which sits 75 miles south of Anchorage on the Gulf of Alaska, hit 70 degrees on Tuesday.
The record temperatures are due to an area of strong high pressure sitting over Alaska. Anchorage’s normal high for this time of year is 63 degrees. The record-breaking heat for Alaska began subsiding on Wednesday, but even today it was still expected to be sunny and 70.
Back home in the Snoqualmie Valley, on this last day of spring, a rainy, breezy day is predicted, with our high temperatures more in the Anchorage range of the low 60’s.
Summer officially starts at 10PM tonight, June 20, 2013. It sounds like the weather could improve to partly sunny by Friday afternoon and Saturday is looking sunny and warmer with highs in the low to mid 70’s.
Anyone else ready for July 5th and summer to officially begin?
