6:22 PM Mon, Aug 21, 2006 | Permalink |
Confirming what you probably suspected -- this is the driest summer on record-so far! Our KING 5 Weather department checked National Weather Service statistics, and found that from the solstice to present, SEATAC airport has recorded only 0.07" of rain. That puts this summer firmly in first place. Second place belongs to 1951, which recorded 0.31" over the same period, and third place to 1960 with 0.38". Longtime residents may recall 1967 as being a very hot, dry summer...but three wet days in June drenched the Seattle area with more than an inch of rain...spoiling it's run for a record.
Of course, the same thing could happen this year. A day or two of rain, even a stray but moderately strong rain shower over the airport, could knock this summer out of contention. With red flag warnings a regular routine over the Cascades and eastern Washington and dangerous conditions west of the Cascades, it's a record we'd be better off not setting. Be careful, and stay cool!
This is another dry one! It seems that our climate is changing, and not exactly for the better. I would think that if these dry patterns keep up, the evergreen state might not be so ever green in the future.
Along the same lines as Dale, above, I've been reading about our area and it's gradual increase in temperature, even more so than other areas. Many are predicting that within 50 years, or possibly sooner than that, we will no longer have low-land snow, and eventually our ski resorts will not longer exist because of lack of snow. How sad! Jeff, if you ever have an opportunity to do an article on this (if you haven't already), I'm sure a great deal of us would be interested. Thanks, Jeff!
Has there been a mandate from the owners of King 5 that the words Global Warming are not to be used on air? I just watched today's broadcast and they said this summer was the driest ever and we can expect more of the same!!! Are you kidding?
At this rate within my lifetime and probably yours also, we will see our environment change drastically as Dale mentioned. I'm a native washingtonian and that's not ok with me and it shouldn't be ok with any of you either. Rain is GOOD, it's what makes our state unique, special and everything that we love.
Fishing, hunting, hiking, biking, climbing all that stuff we like to do around our state will be changed forever if we don't start making a fuss about this issue and make sure it is not being danced around and ignored by our very own number #1, KING 5 NEWS!
I offer not apologies for what I am about to say: I have to laugh at the Global Warming-ites. Environmentalists, the novices at least, all point towards an Earth of deserts if GW is allowed, yet they seem to not notice two facts of importance: 1) 65 million years ago, THERE WERE NO GLACIERS! The dinosaurs lived in a lush, green world without the concept of snow. 2) If the ice caps start to melt, the Earth is not going to warm, it's going to cool. Put three ice cubes in a bowl of hot soup and you will have the same effect. The ice caps will cool the warm waters that cycle up to the Artic, which will in turn cool the equatorial waters, leading to cooler temperatures world wide. We will not bake, we will freeze. And California will get all the rain.
Well, Ruth,
I have to agree with you somewhat. Ice-age/Ice-Melt fluctuations have been happening for millions of years. I have always said that. The whole midwest area was under water at one time. Where do they think all of that water came from? It didn't just blow in here and then evaporate.
Mankind has survived an ice age before and we can certainly do it again. What worries me is that mankind has yet to experience the other side of an ice age. A hot age. How hot and dry are we going to get? Do we know what to expect? We live here in Moses Lake and you should see the smoke that we have been breathing over here for the last two months. It's so thick most days, that you can smell it when you go outside, and it filters the sunshine down to an orange glow. All day long!
What we need most right now is a more effective measure of dealing with forest fires. We need a way to combat them as soon as they are noticed. Even if it means arming our military with fire combat airplanes ready for a quick response. To heck with this attitude of let nature take it's course. We seem to be taking over natures job in everything else. We went to Yellowstone last summer and was astonished, even now, of the damage caused by those fires they let run rampant. And disappointed, too. We were there 34 years ago, and it was a whole lot different then. We may need to shut down our forests in the dry seasons to keep people from causing fires. That is a sacrafice people will just havt to deal with. The forests are way more important than peoples ability to play in the woods every summer. After all, there are three other seasons for play.
What say you?
Wow looking at the records I thought this year was hot and dry. guess we have had werse.
Wow looking at the records I thought this year was hot and dry. guess we have had werse.
The true danger of Global Warming is if, and I repeat, if our swing to the warm is being caused by human activity we may overbalance the natural cycles that have swung the global climate from ice age to ice melt and back. Human actions may destroy the feedback system and the warming trend we are experiencing now will not be able to be stopped by the natural regulatory processes of the Earth. This might result in the conversion of the water of the Earth to water vapor with no liquid left, and then subsequently boiling off into space. Not a good place for life. Sort of like the moon now.