This month has been the culmination of a series of record weather systems across the Puget Sound region throughout the year, ranging from blazing summer heat to frigid winter temperatures.
Puget Sound region’s temperatures dip to lowest in a decade
Extreme weather events pretty much became the norm for all of Western Washington starting in February, and from there, it never really let up.
February snow
On Feb. 13, 8.9 inches of snow fell in the Seattle area. That was the snowiest day the city had seen in any month in 52 years, and the most it had seen on a February day in nearly a century. Combined between Feb. 12 and Feb. 13, that was also the most snow the Seattle area had seen over a two-day period in 49 years.
While it didn’t exceed the total snowfall of 2019’s weeks-long event, that was more than any single day of accumulation Seattle had two years ago. In the larger context of February snow, the Seattle area stood at over 12 total inches for the month in 2021, the fifth most in February on record (2019 ranked as the second snowiest for that month).
April heat and June storms
Western Washington is no stranger to spring showers, but what it got instead this year was a surprise to many. Prior to 2021, Seattle had never seen seven straight days of 70-degree weather in the month of April. That came to an end this year, when the city averaged nearly 76 degrees between April 15 and April 21,