Blustery Northwest winter could follow mild Tri-City October

A pleasant October is forecast for the Tri-Cities, with both temperatures and precipitation likely to be close to normal or possibly a little above normal, according to the National Weather Service.

But AccuWeather is predicting fall weather to build to an early, blustery start to winter in the Pacific Northwest, which could be good for the snow pack that feeds Mid-Columbia irrigation systems.

Winter should kick off with rain and winter storms from northern California through Washington, AccuWeather said.

“They’re going to start out pretty wet, especially from Northern California into the Northwest coast,” said Paul Pastelok, AccuWeather long-range forecaster. “I think that, right off the bat in December, we start to see the snow piling up in the mountains.”

November and December should see the most action, before high pressure builds and stormy weather eases back in late January and February.

For the Tri-Cities this month, precipitation should be near or a bit above the normal of 0.6 inch, according to the Normal Weather Service.

Highs should be close to or a little above the usual of about 74 at the start of the month, dropping to 58 at the end of the month.

Some warmer than usual days will be needed to meet that prediction as the month starts out cooler than usual with highs in the 60s forecast for the Tri-Cities through Friday.

Lows this week should be closer to normal, ranging from the low 50s to the upper 40s. Normal lows in the Tri-Cities fall from 47 at the start of October to 39 at the end of the month.

September broke with the general trend of hotter than usual months for the Tri-Cities and nearby area, but just barely.

It was one of just four months of the past 31 months at Hanford with temperatures cooler than normal, according to data collected at the Hanford Meteorology Station. Daily temperature records there are complete back to 1944.

In the Tri-Cities the average temperature was 65.7, which was slightly below the normal of 66.1. Highs reached the 90s on just one day, Sept. 11, when the high was 91, as recorded in Kennewick. High temperatures averaged 1.4 degrees below normal.

At Hanford the average temperature at the meteorology station also was 65.7, just below the normal for the month of 66.3. No daily temperature records were reported for the month at the Hanford station, based on initial information.

Precipitation in the Tri-Cities in September was 0.26 inch, with most of it falling on Oct. 7. Precipitation was slightly below normal.

At Hanford precipitation measured just 0.08 inch, below the normal of 0.31 inch.

For the year, precipitation has totaled 5.8 inches in the Tri-Cities, which is 0.8 inch above normal.

The peak wind gust in September, as recorded in Kennewick, was 40 mph on Sept. 17. At the Hanford Meteorology Station, it was 40 mph on Sept. 8.

This story was originally published October 3, 2016 at 6:06 PM with the headline "Blustery Northwest winter could follow mild Tri-City October."