After another cold and stormy forecast for Saturday, we are slowly returning to our usual El Niño winter programming with the possibility of light rain or showers and highs into the 50s next week. Fortunately, the coldest air this week remained east of our area and we only received a blip.
Some reports from our higher foothills show a little wet snow falling at times, but nothing to get excited about. And of course, some of you have seen the mixture hitting your windshield all over town. Sure enough, those easterly winds added to the wind chill make low temperatures of 40 degrees feel like 32 degrees.
Wind gusts of more than 100 mph were reported at a notoriously windy site at Crown Point on the Oregon side of the Columbia River Gorge. It is fun for die-hard weather watchers to venture there but otherwise it is not a welcoming place.
We had our third day of high temperatures below 50 degrees on Thursday with 43 degrees and Friday was in the mid 40s. I can't wait until next week when we can enjoy 10 or so degrees warmer temperatures.
Gain daylight
We have 12 days left before we ring in the start of spring weather. Then the winter months enter the climate records. Of course, most wait until the astronomical beginning on March 19 at 8:06 pm local time, which is the day of the vernal equinox. The first full day of spring is March 20. I enjoy the minutes of daylight we gain every day, how about you?
At least the ski areas received a good amount of fresh powder and skiing should be excellent for a few days even with freezing levels. For us, mild weather, light rain and calm weather is on the horizon.
We're still getting about a half inch of rain below average, while recent cold days have brought the average temperature down to just 1.5 degrees above normal. Looking ahead, I think Vancouver will end the month with above-average temperatures and below-normal precipitation. There are no surprises ahead in the near term but beyond next week remains to be seen.
Enjoy the weekend and we'll talk on Tuesday.
