When the Pacific Northwest set all-time temperature records in June 2021, it did so following one of the driest springs on record, so in that sense, the records weren't a huge surprise.
In 2021, summer seemed to start at the beginning of April, giving the temperatures nearly three months to heat up to 110 degrees or more in late June.
The spring of 2022 presented a clear contrast to its predecessor though. Wet, cool weather carried into the middle part of June, bringing to mind springs of 20 or 30 years ago.
Still, the last part of June provided indications that the weather of spring might not hold back summer's high temperatures. From June 25 to June 27, temperatures shot up suddenly, approaching and even surpassing 90 degrees.
Cool weather returned for a couple of weeks to start July. It even brought a little rain around the Fourth of July, again harkening back to the trends of earlier decades.
Then, starting on July 26, an unprecedented stretch of 90-degree weather gripped the Pacific Northwest. For the first time in recorded history, Seattle experienced six straight days that reached at least 90 degrees. The previous record was five straight days of 90-degree weather. It had been achieved three times, most recently in 2015, a year that like 2021, had begun heating up and drying out early in the spring.
In light of 2021's heat, this year's record fits into a larger trend. That the 2022 record came out of a year that had been relatively cool (by recent standards) gives it its own alarming reality though.
The fact is that extreme heat is becoming so common in the age of global warming, it requires hardly any lead-up to take hold and set new records.
