WeatherWatcher: Taste of spring, and now for our regularly scheduled late winter weather

We had sunny skies all weekend long extending into a record breaking Monday, where Sea-Tac recorded a high temperature of 73°F. The previous record was 67°F set back in 1994. Keep in mind that records at Sea-Tac only go back to 1945. There was a record of 75°F on March 11, 1941 at the Federal Office Building in downtown Seattle. On Monday, Shoreline came in just under 70, at a high temperature of 69.4°F.

Our warm weather was due to an upper level southerly flow from California and surface level east winds over the Cascade Mountain range. Easterly winds, when they are traveling west down the slopes of the Cascades, have a warming effect due to compression which always adds a few degrees to our high temperatures. If we had this weather pattern in July it could have been a high 90's or possibly triple digit kind of day.

Here's our daily high and low temperatures compared to the station's average this month:

Forecast: Tuesday our regularly scheduled seasonal late winter weather returns with highs back down to the low 50's and lows in the upper 30's to low 40's. Rain returns as well tomorrow, with showers lasting well into next weekend. Sunday may be our driest day but long range shows temperatures cooler than normal and precipitation above normal through the remainder of March.

For current weather conditions visit www.shorelineweather.com