Temperatures, Soils Warming Across the Northwest

Temperatures across the Northwest have warmed up considerably over the past week.  Daytime highs are topping out in the mid to upper 60's right now, with the possibility of 70's before the end of the week.  And while those temperatures are higher than where we should be for this time of year, Marilyn Lohmann, meteorologist with the National Weather Service says very few are complaining.

“Looking back, March was one of the record coldest across a lot of locations colder than the record set back in 1955.  So, I think some well-deserved warmth is what we’re seeing finally.”

Those warmer temperatures have pushed soil temps higher with most locations in the upper 40's to low 50's, and Lohmann expects those readings to climb one to three degrees this week.  While the soil temperatures look very good, Lohmann says soil moisture levels are not encouraging.

“But, it’s kind of alarming there are a lot of areas right along the foothill locations that the soil moisture is just not as quite as good as I would have thought.  That snow, even though we saw it for so long it didn’t have as much moisture in it as we would have liked.”

Lohmann said a new system will roll into the Northwest later this week bringing a chance of rain showers, with some totals topping out near 1”.  And she noted, looking ahead to next week temperatures are expected to cool a little bit [closer to normal] with hit and miss showers.

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