June isn't getting any warmer

Think it's cold? You have good reason.

Seattle just experienced its coldest first week of June, according to climate records dating to 1891, said Cliff Mass, University of Washington meteorologist. Both 1999 and 2008 share the record — an average temperature of 52.4 degrees — with 1917 in second place at 52.8, he said.

And it isn't just the temperature that felt wintry. Winds gusting to 45 miles per hour knocked out electrical power to nearly 35,000 customers in Western Washington.

The National Weather Service said Monday night that the fierce spring storm was also expected to bring five to 10 inches of new snow to Washington's Cascade Mountains.

Puget Sound Energy spokeswoman Gretchen Aliabadi says more than 17,000 customers have lost power, with Kitsap and Jefferson counties and Vashon hit especially hard. The North Bend-Snoqualmie area also saw about 4,400 customers lose power.

Seattle City Light spokesman Scott Thomsen reported about 17,000 of that utility's customers lost power.

For the past few weeks, state transportation crews had moved from fighting snow to mowing grass, tackling weeds, striping lane lines and sweeping roads. But Monday afternoon they were planning to park their mowers and start up snowplows.

"We will have crews working through the night, and we'll have extra crews on standby just in case this storm hits hard," said Monty Mills, Washington Department of Transportation maintenance manager for snow and ice operations.

While it didn't snow in the Puget Sound area, the record for the lowest high June 9 temperature was broken Monday, when the high reached only 55 degrees, beating last year's record mark by three degrees. Today, under windy and rainy skies, the temperature should get to only 58 degrees.

Mass said in the mix of all the statistics, he's put together the "barbecue" index. That's the number of times since March 11 (the usual start of spring here) temperature climbs to 60 degrees or more — a temperature that Mass thinks people are comfortable being outside in.

"It turns out that this year was the worst year of the barbecue index since 1917," said Mass. "We only got to 60 degrees 23 times this year. Compare that to 1934 [74 times] times or 1992 [69]."

Mass said the coldest spring was in 1917. This year is tied with 1908 for second-coldest, he said.

Susan Gilmore: 206-464-2054 or sgilmore@seattletimes.com

The Associated Press contributed to this report.