Amazing WA State temperature contrast - Sunday Jan 27

Sunday was a day where Meteorologists were amazed by the temperature contrasts across the state.  Some locations didn't rise above freezing.  Others were near all time January record warmth!  What caused this?  Where was this record warmth?  Let's take a look beginning with the new GOES-17 Satellite imagery.

GOES-17 Day Snow-Fog Satellite 2 PM PST January 27th, 2019

This image is from 2 PM Sunday.  Purple is where the low clouds are, encompassing much of the Columbia Basin, Colville area, and Spokane/Coeur d'Alene area.  Red is snow cover, while the green shade is bare ground with no snow cover.  Note Ellensburg is in the green shade (more on this later). 

Now, here are yesterday's high temperatures (Sunday Jan 27th)

Observed high temperatures for January 27th, 2019

Now typically the presence of low clouds does not have a big impact on day time temperatures in Eastern Washington in late January.   The sun angle is still low in the sky and not very effective in warming up the surface.  The number that stands out on this map is Ellensburg, reaching a balmy 62F.  It was a nice day as this WADOT web cam shows.

Meanwhile you'll notice from the temperature map above Ritzville and Spokane didn't even make it to freezing!  Here is a web cam from Davenport, WA (located about 25 miles west of Spokane)

Dense fog, can't see very far!

So why did Ellensburg get so warm?  We will get to this in a minute.  The 62F was very impressive for late January.  It was the warmest January day on record at the airport.  The 2nd warmest January day taking into account a 64F reading recorded by a COOP observer on January 31st, 1971.

 

The northwest flow pattern can bring better mixing of the atmosphere to the Kittitas Valley.  While there wasn't much wind, just the solar heating was enough to spike up the temperatures.  There was also no snow on the ground which is a good reflector of solar radiation.  Here are the observations from Ellensburg Bowers Field.

Ellensburg observations 8 am - 4 pm PST January 27th, 2019

And the 62F was after temps near 30F at 9 am with freezing fog.  An impressive deal to get this warm after a cold and foggy morning.  Wenatchee, which had a similar amount of sun as Ellensburg, did NOT manage to get as warm with afternoon temperatures only in the upper 30s.  A temperature inversion lingered here despite the sunshine which is typical for late January.