The Seattle Times appears to have had its fill of persistently cold temperatures this spring, and the newspaper does not seem thrilled about a forecast for continuing cold.
In an article titled, “What to expect from Seattle-area weather after 2 record-breaking cool, wet months,” the Times lamented, “After the coolest April and May in decades, Western Washington is in store for another month of cooler and wetter weather, according to the Climate Prediction Center’s 30-day forecast for June.”
“The Emerald City saw its third-coldest April recorded over the last 45 years and the 13th coldest ever, according to the National Weather Service of Seattle. And May ended up being the second wettest and seventh coldest on record, with 3.82 inches of rain and an average temperature of 52.6 degrees, according to weather service meteorologist Carly Kovacik,” reported the Times.
“By the end of May, Seattle had seen only six hours with temperatures above 70 degrees,” the Times observed.
The April, May, and June cold in Seattle fulfills a warning the Times earlier published. “If it feels like winter weather is lingering in the Seattle area and it’s taking longer than usual to warm up, that’s because it is,” the Times noted in April. In the article, titled “Seattle is having its coldest April in years. What does that mean for May?” the Times published a meme from Game of Thrones in which a freezing Jon Snow yearns for an end to winter.
Meanwhile, the national media focused relentless attention on heat in some parts of the country, while ignoring cold temperatures in others. Getting lost in the media messaging is the fact that the National Oceanic and Atmospheric Administration’s U.S. Climate Reference Network – implemented in 2005 as the most accurate network of temperature stations throughout the country – shows no warming trend at all. Some places experience record warmth, some experience record cold, and the overall trend defies claims of a climate crisis.
[Photograph of snowy downtown Seattle courtesy of Wikimedia Commons: https://commons.wikimedia.org/wiki/File:Seattle_trolleybuses_in_snow,_downtown_in_2008.jpg]