Highest freezing level ever forecast this wknd

Note that for this weekend the highest ever forecast freezing levels for the Washington Cascades are predicted to rise to 17500' and be above 16000' for several days. Temperatures aloft at 5000' look to be around 28 Celsius. This could be (if forecasts bear out) the warmest temperatures ever recorded in Western Washington.

Gary, do you mean the current weekend (July 18-19) or next weekend (25-26)? Yesterday along the Canadian border it was warm, but not unusually hot for midsummer, and today's NWS forecast says freezing levels 13.5k.

Thanks for any clarification.

Mark

Edit to add: I see that the NWS now predicts 16k freezing levels for next Sunday, a week from today. This, combined with the predicted 80's and 90's in Bellingham and hereabouts, sounds unpleasant at best.

Gary, do you mean the current weekend (July 18-19) or next weekend (25-26)?  Yesterday along the Canadian border it was warm, but not unusually hot for midsummer, and today's NWS forecast says freezing levels 13.5k. 

Thanks for any clarification.

Mark

Edit to add:  I see that the NWS now predicts 16k freezing levels for next Sunday, a week from today.  This, combined with the predicted 80's and 90's in Bellingham and hereabouts, sounds unpleasant at best.

Mark,

The models have backed off a bit since yesterday for next weekend but Sunday still looks incredibly hot. The 16000' freezing level forecast for Sunday would not be a record, just miserable in the mountains. We hit 17,400' about four years ago, breaking the previous record of 15,800' as I recall. But even with the back off on the warming the glaciers are going to take it in the shorts this and likely next week as the freezing level looks to run in the 14,500 to 15,500' level a good portion of this week. Hopefully, reality will prove to be cooler and more favorable than current forecast models but I'm sure you've noticed that for about the last month long term forecasts have consistently underestimated temperatures for about 4 to 5 days out. So, we'll see....

It actually looks like the warmest air aloft goes into the gulf of Alaska (a strange place for this) and the Alaska/Yukon border with some very warm temps over Idaho and western Montana as well.

I climbed Rainier this weekend and temperatures did not seem totally out of control, even though it sure was warm, and warm enough to not wear much layers up to the summit. I saw some skiers. I was not sure who enjoys skiing these big rewarmed sun cups, but it cannot be worse than sliding through them on foot.

We also were up in the mountains, backpacking up on the N. side of Adams. Definitely was warm up there, which was nice out of the sun and in the evening. Interestingly, some puddles were frozen across the top when we woke up in the morning (around the 7,000 foot elevation), but it didn't seem to get anywhere near freezing overnight.

Sorry for any confusion - it is next weekend that things might be record breaking - but the possibility of extremely warm conditions is still in forecasting model runs for next Saturday night through Monday night. The forecasters are now saying (given some inconsistencies in the models) that it is still quite possible for very hot conditions in that time frame.

The GFS model shows nighttime temps Sunday night of 26-28 C at 5000' and daytime temps Monday of 30-32 C at 5000' ! These are warmer than yesterdays forecast for the same time period. Current forecasts also show 4 days or so of 16000' freezing levels.