WARM DAY, COLD WATER

It was four degrees warmer than average with a high of 70 at Sea-Tac. Meanwhile water temperatures are still very chilly. Sea surface temperatures in the Pacific Ocean and the Puget Sound are mainly in the upper 40s and lower 50s. Lake Sammamish is 59 degrees and it is a degree cooler in Lake Washington. Not bad IF you’re a turtle.



It is still cold enough that being on the water is much better than being in the water. My Folks and Brady were heading out as I was about to go get ready for work. Check out the Olympic Mountains. They really popped today, still a lot of snow up there. Remember it’s that melting snow that is feeding our rivers, streams and lakes.



Air temperatures for the rest of the holiday weekend will be in the upper 60s and lower 70s while that water will remain rather chilly.

For the latest lake temperatures:
http://green.kingcounty.gov/lake-buoy/default.aspx

For salt water temps start here:
http://www.ndbc.noaa.gov/maps/NW_Straits_Sound.shtml

ON THE WATER… Calm but warm

I was on a sailboat today shooting a segment that will air in June on KING5. It allowed me a great vantage point for watching the sky.



It was a perfect lazy day for these sea lions. Notice how calm the water looks. The glassy appearance indicates that it was a bit too calm to give the sails a workout but it was still nice just to be out there.

Overhead there was a nice halo around the sun. A halo forms when sunlight is refracted through the ice crystals that make up these high clouds.

It was a bit hazy on the horizon but there is still nothing like seeing Mt. Rainier from the water.

I hope you enjoyed this weekend as much as I did because we are heading back to more typical spring weather this week.

A TASTE OF SUMMER

Despite the high clouds, many spots in western Washington warmed into the 70s with a few spots in the south Sound region in the lower 80s! The high at Sea-Tac was 76. It was a very nice evening to try out my new camera. My old one got a little too wet a few weeks ago, and by “wet” I mean in-the-lake wet. Now I’m back in business and my first photo shoot was during my dinner break on the roof garden at KING5. Here is one of the roof garden’s transient residents.



Here is my first movie with the new camera. It's 12 seconds long and it shows the high clouds we had at sunset.



I bet it was tough to get on that departing Alaska Airlines flight after a day like today. Sunday is also looking really good with temperatures similar to Saturday and more high clouds.