Rain returning, weekend still nice

Full moon over Lynwood. Viewer pic from Bruce in Lynnwood.



A weak front stretches up to the north from southern British Columbia out to sea. This will be stalled for most of the day-- but will be on the move by tonight, bringing our best chance of rain in the evening and overnight hours. The further south you are the warmer you'll get and longer you'll see partly sunny skies.

TODAY looks pretty nice. Already a few showers across the San Juan Islands and western Whatcom County, otherwise increasing clouds. High temperatures a bit warmer than yesterday for most of the area. Highs 70-75 for the Puget Sound, near 80 around Portland. Tonight the clouds will have filled in and rain likely by the overnight hours for everyone.

TOMORROW it starts out with a few lingering showers and some could linger in the Cascades and Olympics even into the afternoon. Not quite as warm for us with the passage of the front. Highs about mid 60s for Seattle, near 70 for Portland.

THE WEEKEND still looks really nice. SATURDAY has a bit of morning clouds and nice afternoon sunshine. SUNDAY might have a bit more cloud cover, but still dry. Highs on both days in the 70s, warmer if you're in Portland where they'll climb again to near 80 degrees.

SUMMER begins very early Saturday (officially at 3:51 am Pacific Time), but really the two or three days around solstice are all about the same amount of incredibly long hours of daylight. Solstice is latin for "sun standing", as the sun pauses in the apparent march north in the sky, before it appears to move south again. This is actually caused by the tilt of the Earth. In the summer the northern hemisphere is tilted towards the sun. In the winter, the northern hemisphere is tilted away from the sun. Sunset for our longest days are 9:10 pm for Seattle, it's even later if you're further north. After the sun stays still for a few days, the sun's track appears to move further south in the sky. Our days will again get shorter and shorter, despite the fact that our weather will get warmer and warmer. For comparison our sunset near the winter solstice in December is about 4:15 pm.

Lenticular clouds over the Olympic Mountains. Viewer pic from Russ near Port Townsend.