Heavy Rain, Thunder and Snow

Well we have had very little low elevation snow this past winter season and as spring open there was nary a flake of snow on the foothills. Only the majestic and mighty Cascade volcanoes were wearing a mantle of white the day Miss Spring took the reigns of control. This past weekend brought some thunderstorms and quite a bit of heavy hail in some of our valley locations. The foothills got a dusting of snow down to mid-slope at around 2500 to 3000 feet.

It seems we have transitioned from dry to wet over the last week or so. Local hydrologists have been worried that a weak snow pack in the Cascades could lead to an early and possibly dangerous fire season this summer. Let's just hope the springtime delivers some tasy snow events in the foothills and the high cascades to help keep us lush and green through the summer. meanwhile get out and soak it up my friends, soak it up :)

A Soggy Soaker Weekend leads to Sunny week, again.

It rained good and hard this past weekend, but the sun is back today and the mercury is settling in the mid sixties today. Looks like spring is back just as it has been all winter long it seems. This week will be a fickle springlike episode with rain and sun followed by more rain and sun. Soak it up my friends, soak it up.

Another Warm Winter Month in the Books

February continued this winter's trend of warmer conditions as the chart show those FIVE days above 60 degrees quite well and the real shocker is that 24 of the 28 days of this past February saw the mercury push past 50 degrees. Perhaps even more surprising was the fact that I recorded only two sub-freezing temperatures all month.

All that warm sunnylicious goodness came at the expense of rain where I saw a well under average 4.17 inches.

A closer look at the month's statistics reveals the deliciously unseasonable nature of this winter. The warmest day was a very nice and cozy 64.7 degrees on the 17th one of three 60 plus days in a row and five 60 plus days on the month! The chilliest overnight low was a modest 29.3 degrees on the 24th. We had a few overnight lows that tickled the 50 mark the warmest of which was 49.8 on both the 6th and 7th. These were two of the 12 days with warm low temps in the 40s. The nippiest afternoon high came on the first day of the month with a mild 44.6 degree reading which is pretty close to normal for early February at my house. Looking at the temperatures across the whole of the month I was five degrees above normal for overnight lows with a month observed average coming in at 39.67 degrees against my 14 year normal of 34.76. The daytime highs were nearly 6 degrees above my normal of 49.41 as I observed an average 55.49 degrees.

On my website I post a 90 day trend chart and the last 90 days has absolutely zero snowfall. December, January and February without so much as a flurry? WOW! As for precipitation for February I mention that I recorded and under normal 4.17 inches, which is not drought numbers by any measure but low none-the-less. The wettest day was the 7th with 0.80 inches falling, the last of three straight days of steady rain over 0.50 inches. I had six days with more than 0.25 inches and 11 days with measurable rain. It is not very often in Western Washington that you get more sun than rain but I had 12 sunny days :)

March is coming in like the proverbial lamb as I am typing this under brilliant sunshine at as the mercury is nudging its way towards fifty degrees at 11 in the morning. So will the fickle month of March bring us any more snow for this season? Honestly you really never know. All the long term forecasts are suggesting that March will continue the mild streak we have had since January. If that pans out I'll end up with a paltry 1.1 inches of snow on the season which is well under my 14 year average of 9.37 inches. That is really not too unusual, Western Washington routinely has winters with very little snow and rarely has a winter with more than 12 inches. All of you snow-haters can relax, looks like you will have a reprieve until next winter. So go outside and soak it up my friends, soak it up.