Cats and Trails and Garden Tales
Musings on cats, travel, gardens and life
The Weather of 2021
There was record breaking weather everywhere this year, but I’ll focus on my own little corner of the world – the Greater Seattle area of the Pacific Northwest.
It started out normal enough. In January there was pounding rain and sunshine, with balmy temperatures at times, making us think we’d already had spring.
Until February and March came along bringing snow, not as much as I like, but enough to have pictures to show for it.
Then winter gave way to spring and the clematis grew furiously trying to escape my yard,
while the bees were happy to stay in the herb garden.
By the end of June, temperatures soared to the highest on record – from 108 to 113 – depending on whose thermometer you believe. With higher temperatures came drought and no measurable rainfall for more than fifty days, while smoke from wildfires turned the sun orange.
We thought it would never end and craved the rain. But soon fall arrived and not to be outdone by summer, became the wettest on record. Over 19 inches of rain fell from September through November, the most of any meteorological fall.
Later, the frost arrived along with colder temperatures.
And still the rain poured, an atmospheric river above, causing flooding, and heartache for some, but also beauty for others.
And now as December draws to a close, what’s next?
Hopefully snow, but no need to be record breaking. A normal year will do.
~ Susanne
Cats and Trails and Garden Tales 
A great review of your seasons, and you captured each one beautifully, Susanne.
Best wishes, Pete.
Thanks, Pete! It was quite a year for weather! 😊
The West side certainly had some bizarre weather, even for Seattle, Susanne! Your climate weirdness mirrored ours here on the Eastern side, except the rain of course…putting Eastern WA into “exceptional drought” status. Egads, I thought I had left all the 100-degree heat and wildfire smoke behind in Northern Cal! You really do capture the seasons beautifully, my friend. I will be around the blogosphere the rest of this week then off on a short break. We thought we might start a winter road trip south after Christmas–nope! I don’t trust Miss La Nina from here to Mt Shasta. Staycation it is and it’s all good!
Thank you so much, Terri. It certainly was a strange weather year! I never thought I’d see 113 here! We won’t be traveling far either but are busily planning for next year. I’ll likely be tapering off my blogging the next couple weeks too.Happy Holidays and enjoy your time off! 😊
Thank you, Susanne, enjoy your time off as well!
What a great to showcase the year – filled with all sorts of unique colors, shapes and temperatures!
Thanks so much, John! It was a unique year in so many ways! And that record breaking heat seems so long ago after so much rain! ☀️🌧
I like your weather trail/tale. I had forgotten what our year had been like.
Thank you! It had everything! It was quite a year! ⛄☀️🌧😊
What a great “Year in Review” post !
Thanks so much! A crazy weather year!
What a year. Let’s hope it’s not the new normal.
Honestly… I’m beginning to think it is. It seems like every year we are breaking some weather record!
That was a really good idea for a post, showing the different seasons of the year through your photos. Benji in the snow is absolutely too cute! Not sure what Foster would do if he saw snow, but pandas seem to like it quite a bit!🐱🐼
Thanks so much. Looking back I realized what an extreme weather year we had! And I love the picture of Benji, too!! I’m wondering if he’ll still want to go out if we get deep snow this winter!
His little legs look like they were sinking down pretty far into the snow in that picture! 😂⛄️⛄️
I’m with you on the normal year for snowfall. So far, we haven’t had much in Yakima. We did have more rain than usual this fall, it seemed to me. And we, too, had a heat record, although I can’t remember exactly what it was. A bit higher than 113° I think.
Yakima’s normal and Seattle’s normal are so different. I avoid Yakima in the summer knowing it will likely be in the 100’s. But for Seattle to get to 113 is unheard of – more like what you’d expect in Death Valley. Hopefully we’ll get back to our “normal” weather patterns in 2022 but somehow, I’m not that hopeful.
I tend to agree with you on that! ☹️