Spring Is Coming: How Warm Will It Be In Washington?

WASHINGTON — Now that the worst of Washington's wintry weather is hopefully behind us, it's time to start looking forward to some warmer weeks ahead.

And, warm weather is coming sooner than you think — the spring equinox officially arrives at 2:37 a.m. Pacific Time on Saturday, March 20 — and while Farmers’ Almanac’s extended spring forecast calls for cooler, wetter weather for most of the country, Washington and the Pacific Northwest are in for a nice break.

Winter has held much of the country in an icy grip as a polar vortex reached the country’s southern border in recent days. The weather has been brutal and hideous over much of the country, and not just among the folks who have nothing better to talk about than the weather.

The extreme cold in places where people normally live in shorts and T-shirts during the winter is the result of a split in the polar vortex, a large area of low pressure that spins around the poles in both the Northern and Southern hemispheres.

It’s the coldest air on the planet. When something happens to knock the stratospheric polar vortex — the layer of cold air 5 to 30 miles above the Earth’s surface — off balance, as happened this year, look out: Pieces of the bitterly cold polar vortex can split off and swirl southward.

The Farmers’ Almanac's extended spring forecast suggests most of the country will pack those memories away with the thermal long johns and fleece-lined boots and trade them for rain gear — but not Washington.

That's right, in a strange reversal of fortunes, the Pacific Northwest is the only part of the country that won't be wetter or colder than usual. Instead, the almanac is forecasting a dry, even balmy spring for Washington, Oregon and Idaho. Compare that to the Midwest, which will be thundery and cold, or the south which will be chilly, showery and slow to warm up.

Even Canada is in for a wetter, colder spring than normal, so Washingtonians should rejoice: we're finally getting our day in the sun.