Monday Was Seattle's Coldest Day In 31 Years: NWS

SEATTLE, WA — Monday was the coldest day in Seattle in 31 years, the National Weather Service tweeted.

The last time there was a colder high temperature in Seattle was Dec. 29, 1990, which had a high of 22 degrees, NWS Seattle said. On Monday, Seattle temperatures reached a high of 22 degrees.

Monday’s low of 17 degrees is also the city’s coldest low temperature since Nov. 24, 2010, when the city experienced a low of 14 degrees, according to the NWS. From 1991 to 2020, the average high in December in Seattle was 47 degrees, and the average low was 37 degrees, according to the National Oceanic and Atmospheric Administration.

While Monday’s weather was one for the books, the coldest recorded day in Seattle took place on Jan. 31, 1950, the first time the city’s temperatures were ever recorded at zero. Two weeks earlier, a fierce snowstorm dropped 21.4 inches onto Sea-Tac International Airport, according to a Seattlepi.com report.

But in 2021, Seattle did break another kind of record: in June, Sea-Tac recorded temperatures of 108 degrees during a statewide heatwave. That is the hottest temperature ever recorded in Sea-Tac, according to mynorthwest.com. Heat records were broken all over the state. During the same period, two NWS stations near Forks and Silver Creek posted temperatures of 118 degrees, the highest ever recorded in Washington state.

But it doesn’t appear that metro Seattle will be posting temperatures that high any time soon. It is 27 degrees in Seattle as of 11:30 a.m., with highs of 30 expected, according to the NWS. On Tuesday night, lows will drop to the low 20s, with a 40% chance of snow. Less than half an inch of accumulation is likely.

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