Spring Preview

After enduring more than two feet of rain over the last two months, we are getting a reprieve that should last through mid-week. Looking out the window I see nothing but big blue sky and a radiant sun. We should see temperatures in the upper fifties this week with some locations topping out over 60 degrees. This is more like an early spring than the middle of winter. I don't imagine winter has retired yet. I'm sure it's just a little getaway. The old man will return and who knows, he could bring back some snow, ice, and you can bet a whole lot of rain. Soak up the sunshine my friends, soak it up!

January: a tale of Jekyll and Hyde

This glorious new year started off much like its predecessor ended; it was a bit chilly. Nothing record breaking, not even close, but chilly and even a bit snowy. About halfway through the month things began to get warm and wet. Not record breaking wet like December 2015, but a solid eight and a half inches of precipitation managed to find the rain gauge. This translated into gobs of fluffy white powder in the upper elevations and torrents of rushing water down here.

There were enough fifties in January to catch the attention of the marketing people at AARP. Downtown Vancouver and parts of Portland were playing footsie with 60 degrees, I topped out at 56.5 on the 25th, one of 7 days finding the 50 plus mark. The warmest over night low came on the 27th with a toasty 46. Early in the month the chilliest morning was the 3rd with a modest mark of 23.5, one of 11 days under the freezing mark. The coldest daytime high arrived later that same day when the mercury failed to get out of the 20's, peaking at 29.5. That was the only day that couldn't get above freezing and it turned out to be the snowy day as well when 1.75 inches fluffy white was on the ground. A little bit more snow fell over the next few days mostly as mixed precipitation.

Speaking of precipitation, the month finished up with 8.57 inches in the bucket which for me is about an inch and a half above my 15 year average. 22 days of rain but relatively dry compared to the 16 inch deluge that ended 2015. A flat 2 inches of snow fell from the 3rd through the 5th, nearly all of it on the 3rd. The snow actually hung around in shady spots for over a week; it's unusual for such a light dusting to hang around that long. The wettest day had 1.01 inches of rain; that was one of 13 days with a 1/4 in the bucket or more and one of four with more than 3/4 inch.

Overall the month was about dead on average for daytime highs and a couple of degrees warmer over night by the norms. This may turn out to be a fickle winter; the Dr. Jekyll and Mr. Hyde analogy may continue to be relevant as the year progresses. Central Washington has been in a pretty deep freeze most of this winter and if that cold air stays in place east of the Cascades, a cold snap is inevitable here in the West. We shall see.

Warm and cool, warm and cool. Soak it up my friends, soak it up.