EVERETT — It might not seem like it now with stubborn early morning frost on windshields but 2015 was a pretty toasty year.
At least that’s what the numbers show.
“For the second year in a row, it was a record warm year,” the National Weather Service in Seattle reported.
Several weather service meteorologists recently compiled their observations into a five-page year-end retrospective.
The average temperature at Seattle-Tacoma International Airport was 55.8 degrees, exceeding the previous record of 55 from 2014.
At 63.5 degrees, the average high temperature also was record-setting, one degree above the previous average highs set in 2014 and 1992.
Four months — February, March, June and July — set records for the warmest months. Four others — January, May, August and October — were among the top five warmest months.
An 18-month streak of above-normal temperatures ended in September.
There were a record 12 days hotter than 90 degrees.
“Probably the warmth was the biggest thing,” said Brent Bower, a National Weather Service meteorologist.
Conversely, the coldest days weren’t many when “you go back and look at how few low-temperature records were set,” said weather service meteorologist Ted Buehner.
There were consequences to the warmth, dryness and depleted snowpack.
“The forests were drier sooner,” Bower said. “The fire season started earlier.” The 2015 wildfire season was the largest in Washington state history, with more than 1 million acres burning across the state from June to September, according to the Northwest Interagency Coordination Center. A fire near Twisp killed three U.S. Forest Service firefighters in August.
Closer to home, parched brown grass made for fast-burning tinder with a rash of brush fires that kept Snohomish County firefighters busy from spring into the fall.
By May, the mild winter and warm spring caused sections of the popular Big Four Mountain Ice Caves to collapse east of Granite Falls.
Two months later, the caves collapsed again with several people inside. A California woman was killed that day and her brother, a Lynnwood man, died from his injuries three months later.
The year also brought some unusual weather for Western Washington, including a Jan. 18 tornado through the Gig Harbor area of Pierce County and another one Dec. 10 near Battle Ground in Clark County.
An Aug. 29 windstorm with gusts up to 67 mph slammed much of Western Washington, killing four and causing more than $3.5 million in damage.
On Nov. 17, another windstorm killed a Monroe man in his car while knocking out power to 150,000 Snohomish County homes and closing schools and major highways. Gusts hit 61 in Everett.
For all its high temperatures and dryness, 2015 will finish the year with above-normal precipitation. It also will set a mark with 14 days of more than an inch of precipitation.
December saw heavy snowfall to the mountains. By Dec. 22, snow in the Cascade Mountains exceeded the greatest total on the ground at any time last winter, the weather service reported.
Eric Stevick: 425-339-3446; stevick@heraldnet.com.
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