This week, Seattle could see the warmest days of the year so far

Winter officially came to an end on Sunday, and the weather outlook for Seattle this week seems to confirm what our calendars say.

Dustin Guy, a meteorologist with the National Weather Service in Seattle, said temperatures could climb into the 60s on Tuesday and then again on either Friday or Saturday.

“There’s still some question as to how Friday and Saturday might pan out, but Tuesday looks like it could be the warmest day we’ve seen since the middle of November,” Guy said.

Guy said Tuesday’s high will likely be 61 or 62 degrees, depending on sun breaks. He said it’s hard to predict at this point what afternoon highs will look like on Friday and Saturday, but said there’s a chance that temperatures could again break into the 60s.    

Despite this week’s warmer temperatures, meteorologists aren’t expecting extended periods of sunny skies. Clouds, rain, light wind and morning fog are all in the forecast for this week.

Tuesday’s potential to be the warmest day of the year so far might seem strange to anyone who was outside in Seattle on Sunday. The weather service said Sunday’s high of 48 degrees made it the third coldest March 20 in the past 55 years.

It seems a fitting end to a Seattle winter that meteorologists say was unusually cold and wet.

In 78 years of keeping records in the city, the weather service said this winter was the 26th coldest and the 20th wettest. The average temperature was 41.2 degrees, and precipitation totals reached just under 16.5 inches.