Holidays at the Beach

This article was posted today on my Coastal Living Blog. This is Storm Watching Time!

The holidays at the beach can be either busy or quiet depending on where you go. December is one of the 'stormier' months and tends to attract storm watchers from the inland areas. Winter storms hit the coast with a special kind of vigor that is not often seen in the Portland Metro Area.

The temperature tends to be a bit warmer along the coast as the mighty Pacific Ocean moderates things a bit. But the rain and wind can come like a tropical storm, sans the warm temps of course. This is winter at the Beach.

As for the holidays the usual buzz can be felt at stores and commercial areas. The Long Beach Peninsula however is much more quiet on the roadways during the Holidays than in big cities like Portland and Vancouver. That can be very nice.

Be sure to head out to Long Beach for the New Year's Eve fireworks on the beach. A five minute deluge of mighty booms and sparks will welcome in 2018 at mid night.

That's all I got this time round, see you next year.

Ho Ho Ho... another December is upon us

Another month is closed out and November, 2017 was damp and mild all month long. Some oddities about last month include nary a freezing temp all month long. In fact the average morning low was a balmy two over normal at 40.68°. Daytime highs were spot on average however right at 50°. The month yielded 19 days with rain and just 5 days with any real sunshine. That is a Northwest November. About six inches in the bucket which is fair but a bit drier than the normal 8 inches.

Temps were mild all month with no extremes at all. The warmest temp was a modest 59.7° on the 23rd and the chilliest morning a warmish 35.1° on the 18th. The coldest afternoon high was the nippy 40.6° recorded on the 6th and the toastiest overnight low came on the morn of the 29th when it only dipped to 49.6°. Exactly one half of the days managed to bust out over 50°.

The water works were wet but well below a typical November. 19 days and just six inches meant it was mostly showery. There were three of hydro-pumper days above 1/2 inch including the soggy 15th when nearly an inch came down (0.95 in). Not one snowflake fluttered in the breeze but several days saw snow levels dip down to the lower hills above 1500 feet.

If this first two months of autumn is any indicator of our winter, I'd say it will be rather mild this season. But alas, autumn is not a reliable indicator for winter. The magically merry day of Christmas is now just four and a half weeks out and one never knows what the potentially chilly month will bring. I will always vote for a white Christmas but the Northwest Weather  Gods rarely grant that wish. More than likely any snow will come after the New Year as my cumulative snowfall totals are heavy stacked in the first two weeks of January.

Happy Holidays and be sure to soak it up my friends; soak it up.

Boo! It's November Now!

For the first time since 2010, trick or treaters were able to roam the streets of the 'Couv' without fear of rain or drizzle. It was a glorious day with just a few passing clouds throughout the day and into evening hours. It was a fitting close to a nice October for 2017.

This past month was not without its share of drama. We had a five day period within which well over three inches of rain came down. But the classic 'autumn' month was equally beset with sunshine as it was rainfall. October 2017 had seven clear days against nine rainy days and the rest of the month was partly to all cloudy. This autumn we were treated to some late season 70s which is always a delight. I doubt I'll have the 218 day streak of sub-seventy degree weather we had last season. since I recorded a 70 plus day a full thirty days later this fall than last fall.

Overall October was a pretty "normal" month. Overnight lows were much cooler than usual but that was likely due to a large number of crisp clear nights. My observed average overnight low came in at 41.46° measured against my running normal of 45.37°. Daytime highs we spot on, observed at 62.06° against the norm of 61.49°. I received my first frost on the 14th it was rather light and the first freeze came and the final day of October with a morning low at 30.7°. That is a bit late for the first freeze. But I'll remind you all that last year I did not get my first subfreezing temp until the first week of DECEMBER! And look at all the snow we got last winter!

October delivered four days in the 70s two in the first week and two more in the last, but none of them could bust out over 75°. The warmest day was the 27th with a reading of 72.3°. The chilliest morning was the aforementioned Halloween at 30.7°. The warmest overnight low came on the 7th under cloudy skies when the temp stayed above fifty bottoming at 50.5 degrees. The chilliest daytime high arrived on the 12th of October with a mark of 52°.

October was just about dead average for rainfall with 4.28 inches falling at my location. More than 80% of the rainfall came in just four days! There were a total of nine days with precipitation greater than a drizzle. The wettest day was the 21st when 1.44 inches hit the bucket, one of two days with more than an inch.

November is starting out on the chilly side. The National Weather Service has indicated that snow levels will begin a precipitous drop falling below pass levels today or tomorrow and dropping all the way down tot he lower foothills by the weekend. We are not likely to see any flakes flying below 1500 feet however.

The outlook for winter has moved from a neutral pattern to a weak La Niña pattern which is similar to last year. Climatologists are short of saying we will repeat the cold and snowy spell from last year, but the conditions are shaping up as similar. Hold on tight here we go!

Soak it up, my friends, soak it up.   

The Autumn Wind is Coming...

Sounds like an old NFL Films intro for the Oakland Raiders. However this is a a weather blog, not a sports column so that title is more fact than fiction. It is autumn and the cool winds are coming.

September is in the books and it was a tad warmer than my local 16 year average. We saw the average daily high at 75.29° about a degree warmer than normal and the average low came in at 53.22° nearly two above. The warmest day was the 2nd with 94.8° which was one of three days above ninety all in a row to lead off the month. The chilliest temp came on the night of the 24th with a chilly but not cold 43.3°

We had a very toasty overnight low of 67.3° on the morning of the 5th which was one of 5 nights in a row that failed to dip under 60 degrees. September 20th managed on 57.7 degrees for the high one of two days that could get to 60 degrees.

The water story was pretty much an average affair with the bucket picking up 2.23 inches against a typical September normal of 2.47 inches. 16 days saw mostly sunny skies and just 6 days had precipitation that exceeded 0.03 inches. We had a solid soaker on the 19th when 1.4 inches fell one of only two days with more than a 1/4 inch of rain.

Looking ahead to October it seems like cooler than average is on the horizon for the first part of the month. Autumn is here and with it rapid changes in temperature is assured. By the end of the month we will struggle to get to the mid-50s. Cool and crisp weather with gusty breezes await us as the trees turn bright and the holidays approach.

Soak it up my friends, soak it up.

Hot August Days.

That title sums up last month. I observed an average daily high more than 4° above my 16 year average. But we didn't have Hot August Nights as my overnight average was about 1° below my established "normal."

The month of August here in America's Vancouver can be summed up with the phrase, Hot and Dry. After a zero precipitation month in July we followed up with a near zero effort last month. I got some showery weather that came in late on August 12th and continued into the morning of the 13th leaving behind 0.13 inches in the bucket. That was all she had to give.

The month produced a pair of 100° plus days back to back on the 2nd and 3rd, that brought my total of triple digit temps for 2017 to three. That is well above my established average of 0.6 days per year over 100°. As for days over 90°, I stand at 11 with more expected this weekend. My long standing average for ninety plus degree days is 11 so we will be above average in that category this year as well.

The temperatures were for the most part typical for August. We had 27 sunny days and just two days with any precipitation and it was very light. Seven days crested the 90° mark including the aforementioned duo of triple digits. All 31 days of August yielded temps above 70° which is not at all unusual. 19 days busted out over 80°. The high mark was the 3rd when the mercury pushed up to 101.1° the second hottest day of the year. The warmest overnight low came on the morning of the 4th when it was a balmy 64° Their were 10 days with the mercury failing to drop under 60°. Our coolest afternoon high came on the 13th and 14th when both days measured an equal 71.2°. Only two other days failed to reach 75°. The chilliest overnight low was a crisp 48.2° on the 14th and that was one of two nights when the mercury dipped into the 40s. Overnight lows in the upper 40's in the summertime is not rare but it is a bit unusual. July also produced a pair of sub 50s.

The rainfall totals are minimal. A showery system rolled through on the evening of the 12th and dropped some light precipitation that continued overnight to produce two "days" with precipitation but really it was only a few hours and the total for the month was a well under average 0.13 inches of which 0.11 fell the morning of the 13th. My 'normal' rainfall in August is 1.24 inches.

The 21st was the day the sun went dark as a nearly total solar eclipse event happened here. We had 99.2% totality here in Vancouver. The photo to the left shows it when it was at around 90%. I wonder how much the eclipse effected the high temp that day? It did cool off significantly as the event peaked, and it briefly got dark enough to trigger street lights. That was one of our sub 75° days.

September will start out toasty warm to blazing hot if the NWS has their figures right. Originally there was a call for more triple digit heat but they have curtailed that back to a week of 90s including some upper 90s starting on Labor Day. So it seems we will keep padding that 90 plus count. Our 100° run may end if we fail to hit it this week. September is a strong transition month whereby we rapidly see the autumn cool arrive. Evenings will get crisp and cool and temperatures will start trending quickly into the lower 70s. Such is the case north of 45° of latitude. Seasons change rather abruptly.

Meanwhile the Western US is under a major fire crisis. Although late summer fire season is nearly always a problem in locales further south, here in the Northwest it is seemingly extra bad this year. It certainly didn't help that over the last FOUR months dating back to May 1st, I have recorded a total of just 2.83 inches of rain. That is ridiculously dry my friends. The 'normal' rainfall over that period is 8.01 inches! Going all the way back to June 16th I have recorded just 0.25 inches. WOW! that is California desert dry in the notoriously damp, Western Washington. It is not uncommon to have July go all dry, but to go 11 weeks with just a quarter inch is quite extraordinary. The smoky haze we all see is caused by raging fires all over the West and it may be the reason the NWS downgraded forecast temps from 100° plus to upper nineties this coming week.

Let's hope September is all wet shall we? I love me a nice sunny day, but we've used our allotment for 2017, bring on some showers and lets put these fires out!

Soak it up my friends; soak it up.

Hot August Nights?

July is in the books and it was for all intents and purposes: spot on average. With a average daily high of 81 and a average daily low of 55, I was one over by day and one under by night. Rainfall was a big fat zero and that is well below the historical "normal" of 1.02 inches. By no means however, is a bone dry July unusual.

July was just wonderful in every measurable way as far as weather is concerned.

As for the temps I recorded a monthly high of 90.1° that came yesterday and was the only temp in July above 90°. Every single day last month busted out over the top of seventy degrees and the chilliest afternoon was the 7th when 70.7 was the best she muster. So I had 19 delicious summer days between 80-90 degrees. I have said it before and I'll say it again, summers in the Metro Portland-Vancouver area are as good as any on this planet. I did have a three quasi-chilly morning lows where the mercury dipped into the upper 40s the coolest of which was a 48.9° recorded on the 11th of July. The warmest overnight low was a balmy 62.8° on the 23rd which was the only overnight low that remained above 60°.

There was no rain in the month of July so I have no stats for precipitation. July and August are typically the driest months of the year and it is not unusual to have a blank slate on precipitation during either month. It would be unusual to have both July and August bone dry in the same year. We shall see if that happens this year.

August is starting off with the furnace set to Venus levels. Today is expected to tease the century mark and both tomorrow and Thursday are forecast to bust well above 100°. Friday is another wild card that with tickle the triple digits. If all four days break one hundred degrees it will be a first for me in 16 years of observations at this station. Just to be clear, I have never recorded more than two 100° plus temps in a row. I have yet to record a dozen 100° marks in that 16 year period. We may get four this week! If I were betting on it, I'd say we get two of the four. We shall see it all begins later today. The NWS has already backed the high forecast for today at PDX down to 99° from the 100° they predicted in yesterday's forecast.

One interesting thing I see is the Wednesday evening low forecast at 71°. That is a 'Hot August Night'. My all time record for overnight lows was set back on July 22nd, 2006 when I recorded a low of 73°. That low came after a rare day of clouds and upper 90s and the cloud cover kept the heat in all night long. We are not expected to see so much as a whiff of cloud cover so I think that record is probably safe.

Get ready for the heatwave and go a head and soak it up my friends, at beach if need be, but soak it up.

June is Gone and Summer has Arrived!

The first official day of summer has come and gone and so has the month of June. Here in the Northwest June is tends to be a spring month, not a summer month. June did bring with it some very summery weather including the hottest day I have recorded since the all time record high was set back in July of 2009. That was also the first triple digit heat I have recorded in nearly two years, the last time was, July 30th, 2015.

After a cooler than average trend that began in December last year and continued through last month, June emerged a tad warmer than average and a touch on the dry side as well.

June produced two days in excess of 90° at my location including that scorcher on the 25th when the mercury when stratospheric at 103.6°. That toasty warm daytime high was helped by a relatively warm overnight low of 63.1°. That was the warmest overnight low of the year. Despite the blistering heat mark set last month June was not without its chilly moments. True to form, the late spring weather did produce four nights in the 40s including the chilliest night on the 5th when the bottom came at 43°. The coldest daytime high arrived on the 12th when I failed to reach 60° for the first of two sub 60s in a row. The 12th was 58.1° followed by a crisp 59.4° on the 13th. June gave us 17 days above 70°, seven of which busted out over 80°, two days above 90°, and the aforementioned single day above 100°.

Rainfall came in light of my 16 year "normal" but well within typical June fluctuations. The bucket caught 1.46 inches of rain. June had some scattered thunderstorm activity that probably pushed nearby stations well above 2 inches, but my station seemed to avoid those downpours this time 'round. The soggiest day came on the 15th when I saw 0.51 inches and that was one of just two days where I recorded more than 1/4 inch.

The ever so fickle, Miss Spring was in control of June with bouts of both chilly and hot weather. We enjoyed a delicious 16 days of sunshine against just 8 days of rain, most of which was drizzly in nature. Heading into July it looks like we will have rather typical summer weather for the next several days. The NWS in Portland has this forecast this morning.



The metro Portland-Vancouver region enjoys some of the best summer weather on this planet. Temps don't like to get above ninety much and triple digits are worthy of front page headlines. We simply bask in mildly warm, mostly sunny days for the next 75 days or so.

Summer has arrived so soak it up my friends, soak it up.

Summer Season is here, but Summer is not.

The merry month of May is in the books and statistically is was pretty darn 'normal'. Overnight lows averaged almost dead 'normal' and the average daily high was about a degree above 'normal'. Rainfall came in well under normal but May is a month with a wide range of variance so it was really pretty typical. The Memorial Day Weekend was pretty nice with mid eighties on Saturday and Sunday and a mild 76° on Monday. June is starting off cloudy and damp and that is typical as well. For most of America, June kicks off the summer season. Here on the west side of the Cascade mountains, June remains firmly in the grasp of spring and her volatile moods.

Temperatures were literally a roller coaster ride on the chart. On May 4th we had a nice sunny 83.1° for the high and it was followed by a chilly 59.5° on Cinco de Mayo. So went the whole month.

The only hot day was the 22nd when my thermometer topped at at exactly 90° the only reading to breech the nineties all month. I had eight days with a reading in the eighties or better and ten days that failed to reach 60°. The warmest overnight low came on the 4th with a summerish 56.5° and the coolest temperature came the morning of the 1st when it was a nippy 37.9°. That was one of four mornings that dipped into the thirties overnight. Such is the fickle nature of spring time in the Northwest. The chilliest daytime high was a cool 52° on the 13th.

As for the rainfall it shows up as below average but really May is often beset with light thunderstorms and scattered showers. My rainfall was light but other ares very near me probably recorded above average rainfall. I had nary a day above 1/4 inch of rain and just 8 days with precipitation. That said there were a couple of days where the region had strong thunderstorms including one that triggered an alert from the "Emergency Broadcast Network". That alert was for the northern part of Clark County where serious lightning strikes, flash flooding, and golf ball size hail were coming down. I got light showers during that event. Another amazing light show went on for nearly two hours to my south, but again the rain from that one missed me. So 1.24 inches was my bucket total for May well under my 3.25 average. The wettest day was the 16th with 0.24 inches.

June will likely be a roller coaster for the first half before we see a summer pattern develop. Such it is in late spring. May and June tend to be unpredictable. But the next sic weeks will deliver long, long, long daylight as we move into that period where we have 18 hours of light, dawn to dusk. Cloudy or not, that is good stuff :)

May is Here, April was chilly...

Welcome to May! Eventually spring will arrive, I hope. April was a rather blah month with daytime highs about 2 under average and not a single warm day at 70° or better. Overnight lows were actually a tad above average and that is likely due to the many, many days with cloud cover. So that makes now, OVER SEVEN months without a seventy. In fact as of today, we are at 216 days and counting. Yikes!

April's temperature numbers were pretty flat over all. We had six days with temperatures above 60°, the warmest was the 21st when we busted out a 68.2 mark. It is likely some nearby locations saw 70°, I did not. We managed to hit at least 50° on all 30 days in April the coolest of which was the 24th when I peaked at exactly 50 degrees. The coldest temperature came the morning of the 3rd with a frosty 33.6 degrees and one of 9 days with lows in the 30s. I had just three "sunny" days and I had to get a bit generous with the definition to pull that off. 18 days with rain but a less than average load in the bucket.

As for precipitation it was all rain which is no surprise as snow in April is pretty rare. We did have a fair amount of thunderstorms and some associated hail collected on the streets a few times. Nothing larger than pea size. I measured 3.88 inches for the month, running shy of my 15 year average of around 4.24 in April. There was only two days that were really wet the worst of which was still a modest soaking of just 0.88 inches on the 24th.

Overall April was a bit boring on the weather front, I guess that is good, really. Averages were 42° low and 57° high. That's about 0.7° over and 2.5° under respectively.

This week the NWS in Portland is calling for some 80s on Wednesday and Thursday. It seems we get to just skip the whole first 70 and go right for the June Jugular at 81°. We shall see, it has been a weird year.

Spring is Here, More or Less

The month of March has marched into the the nether. It was pretty typical of March with slightly warmer nights and slightly cooler days. It was well above average for rainfall, a bit light on snow and well shy of expectations regarding sunshine. Seriously the great yellow orb was conspicuous by its absence.

I listed 5 days as sunny but I am pretty generous with what counts as "sunny". I figure that it is sunny enough if 6 hours of the day basks in the golden rays of El Sol. This was one gray march and it spit rain nearly every day. In fact I measured at least a touch of rain on 23 days with 19 having my standard .03 inches as a minimum "rainy day".  

What is really a bit odd about this March was that just ONE day managed to top out above 60 degrees. ONE! That is truly unusual for March. March is a month than can show a wide range of temperatures and usually does. I generally receive the first 70 degree day of the year sometime in March. If you check back to November 1st edition of this blog, you will see that October posted NO 70s and that is usually the last month with such a mark. As it stands now the last 70 degree day was September 28th when the merc busted out a 72.3° Holy Long and Cool, Batman, that's over SIX months with nary a 70 in sight! SIX MONTHS! Half a year! For the record, Chicago had a day that broke 80° last month. Oh and by the way, the last time I had the whole month of March blow by without reaching 70° was March of 2011. Oh wait, there's more... this is a streak of sub-70s that is now the longest I have seen since keeping records here dating to 2002. I stand at 185 days since the last 70° reading. Today is highly unlikely to bust a 70 since it's 1:30 pm right now at I just hit 50 under clouds and showers. The streak continues.

March 2017 had an average daily high of 52.91° down when measured against my "normal" of 54.68°. The average daily low came in at 40.65° up from the typical average of 38.45°. Warmest day a sunny and 60.4° on the 10th. The balmiest overnight temp occurred on the 14th under cloud cover with a 48.2° mark. The chilliest temperature I got at my station was the morning of the 19th when it was 30° under clear skies. The coolest daytime mark for March came on the 6th when the day started with a dusting of snow and then washed out with rain and a high of 43°. So March ended up with just one subfreezing temp and 19 mornings chillier than 40°. Eight days managed to get above 50° and just the one aforementioned sixty plus. March 2017 was really steady on temps all month as opposed to the more common 'battle of the seasons' where there is a cold snap and a heat wave in the same month. This was truly a bland March and it felt much 'cooler' than it was since we were not rewarded with that first warm day of the year.

On the water side of the weather we seem pretty good this season. I added another 7.32 inches in the bucket against a 'normal' of 5.52 inches. This on the heels of a soggy February that yielded 9.41 inches. There was no big storm event that pushed the rain totals up. It was a couple of wet systems and an incessant drip all month long that aided the overflowing rain pail. The only snow was that tiny little dusting of .25 inches that stayed on the ground all of a couple hours before being washed down the drain under a more typical March shower of rain. 23 days of drip and a few days of heavy downpours added up to a soggy and gray March.

April is starting out much like March with showers and relatively cool temps. Here's an April First show out the window. There is that plum tree finally flowered about a month late. There's that wet street we have seen nearly every day since January when it was a snowy street.

This is no fool my friends, Miss Spring is still in Cancun, I think she missed her flight. Come on girl, were ready for some 70s. Seriously, were ready.

 

Broke a Record and Tied Another Today

Coming into today, this winter season was tied as the third snowiest on record since I started keeping snowfall records at this location in the winter of 2001-02. This morning I enjoyed a little dusting of snow. Only about a 1/4 inch stuck to the ground but it was enough to move this 2016-17 winter season alone into 3rd place as a solid bronze medalist. Coming into today this season was tied for the most number of days the Evergreen School District was closed for winter weather at 7 days. This little dusting did not result in any school closures of course so that remains a tie. Today did advance the 2016-17 winter season into a first place tie with the 2008-09 season as most days with measurable snowfall at 24. 2008-09 is the snowiest I have on record at 28.75 inches. We are not even have way to that total this year. I currently have a total of  30 days with at least a trace of snow lying on the ground. The record of 39 days with snow on the ground set back in 2006-07 is pretty safe at this point. That season only had 10.7 inches all year but January of 2007 had snow on the ground nearly every day of the month. I doubt we will get 9 more snow days before the warm rays of spring arrive.

All in all this winter will go down as a notably chilly one. 14.3 inches of snow is hardly a major total but we did the January storm that dumped a lot more snow on the west side than here at my house. Areas west of I-5 in Vancouver saw one day snow totals well over a foot which compares to a mere 7 inches that I got here. So in local lore this winter will carry more weight than others with similar snow totals. The Top three snowiest and epic winters since I started keeping my records are as follows:

1. 2008-09 - 28.75 inches (Christmas Storm)
2. 2003-04 - 22.90 inches (Great Ice Storm)
3. 2016-17 - 14.30 inches (I-5 Blizzard)

There you have my friends records they be broken... soak it up my friends, soak it up.

Chilly but no Records

Another month is in the books and once again this winter is proving to be chillier than average as February came in well under the established norm.

Unlike December and January which had some significant snowfall, the shortest month was rather ho-hum. It was cooler and wetter than average, but uneventful for the most part.

Temperatures were cool but no daily records fell for me. The chilliest temp came on the morning of the 13th when it was 28°. The coldest daytime high temp came on the 3rd when the mercury could push past 36.3°. We did have some fairly warm weather despite the overall nip in the air. Three days managed to get above 55° including the toasty 60.4° recorded on the 13th. Yes it was one of those late winter oddities where the both the monthly coldest temp and warmest temp occurred on the same day. I mentioned that no records fell but what made this month chilly was the consistently cool daytime highs over most of the month. February is a month where 50s start to show up regularly and this last month saw just four temps over 50° all month. My observed average daily marks were a slightly cooler than normal 34.81° L and very cool four degrees under normal 45.67° H. I had five days that failed to breech the 40° mark which is not unusual in December or January but definitely out of character for February. Everyday last month did manage to at least get above the freezing mark.

As far as precipitation is concerned, last month was all wet. I recorded a soggy 9.41 inches of rain. I had three wet days over an inch including a soaker 1.66 inches on the 16th. I was a whopping 3.5 inches over my established normal for the month.

Despite the cool temps and copious precipitation, I had only a tiny trace of snowfall over four days totaling a practically nil, 1/4 inch. That little bit however has launched the 2016-17 winter snow season into a 3rd place tie with 2011-12 as far as measured snowfall at my location dating to 2001. I stand at 14.05 inches of snow going into March, a month with a 16 year average of 0.85 inches. It would take a record breaking monthly snowfall for March (2012, 7.85 inches) to move our snow year into 2nd place (2003-04, 22.90 inches) and 1st place (2008-09, 28.75 inches) is simply out of reach this late in the season.

We spent nearly the whole month of February hovering just under the snow level. The NWS has showers and rain all week but they have tossed in a little chance of some snow mixing in on Sunday. If that happens and I get some measurable snow, 2016-17 will stand on the podium of snowy winters, with the bronze, at least since 2001. As for a record breaking March, don't hold your breath; since 2001 only that one March in 2012 yielded more than 1.6 inches. I'm pretty sure the 7.85 inches in March of 2012 was a freak of nature!

March is a fickle month, it can be very spring-like, but it can be wintry as well. Who knows? Just get out and soak it up my friends, soak it up!

 

Coldest January in Years!

We just closed out a chilly January here in the Metro Portland/Vancouver area. We had it all, bitter cold, snow, sleet, freezing rain, regular rain and even a little sunshine just for good measure. The local news in nearby Portland, OR has been reporting that last month was the coldest January on record sine 1979 and the coldest month since 1985. Of note, January 1979 was MUCH colder as sub zero temps were recorded here in the 'Couv' that year.

For those reading this blog from places like Wisconsin, Michigan, Minnesota, laugh it up because our "coldest" is about normal for you guys. For us it was a bona fide chilly month.

Starting with the temperatures, we were well below average. My 16 year average for January is 33.47 low and 44.62 high. Last month I observed an average low of 27.34 and average high of 39.34. That is a whopping 6 under on the low and 5 under on the high! Most of this was driven by a very cold first two weeks and then a typical last two weeks. Unlike 1979 which was driven by a massive arctic event with the aforementioned sub zero and single digit marks that may have skewed the whole month, this last month was not driven by epic cold but rather an extended cold. I have a several daily record lows based on my 16 years reporting. Here are my daily records for overnight lows, again I only have 16 years of data and most of these lows are not likely all-time daily lows. They are however recent daily lows and to have this many in one month is what is unusual not the actual temps themselves. None of these lows are any where near as cold as the lowest I have recorded in the last 16 years at this location.

• Jan 5th 17.2
• Jan 6th 13.3
• Jan 7th 19.0
• Jan 13th 13.5
• Jan 14th 13.3
• Jan 15th 14.5
• Jan 16th 21.0

I also had a couple of daily highs that were the coldest on record for me at this location but none were anywhere near my all time record cold. Here they are:

• Jan 6th 35.2
• Jan 7th 31.1
• Jan 8th 37.0
• Jan 11th 31.6
• Jan 13th 28.0
• Jan 17th 34.3

Temperatures in the rural areas just outside of Vancouver, such as Brush Prairie, WA saw temperatures plunge into the low single digits. Long after the frozen ponds in the city thawed they remained frozen for weeks in the country. The all-time record low that I have recorded here dating back to 2002 is 8.7 degrees on the 9th of December 2009. The coldest daytime high I recorded here is January 6th 2004 when 20.2 was the warmest temp of the day. These lows fail miserably against the all time lows for Orchards, Washington which is the closet "official" station to me where -11 degrees is the mark to beat. Do to the heavy urbanization of this part of Vancouver since 1950 when that mark was recorded, it is likely to remain in perpetuity.

January 2017 had six days with lows under 20 degrees and 22 days below freezing. There were 5 days in which the mercury was unable to break above freezing and that is above the average for the whole season. The coldest low came on the 6th with 13.3, the warmest overnight low was 38.7 on the 19th. The warmest temp arrived on the same day as the warmest low when we had out lone 50 plus day at 51.3 degrees. The chilliest daytime high was the 13th when 28 under sunny skies was all she had. We can't underestimate the effect of a foot or so of snow on the ground had on the overnight lows. 

January 11th. 2017, Northeast Vancouver

Precipitation was light as far as water content rainfall is concerned but snow was well above average for the month. A typical January yields 7.05 inches of rain and last month garnered just 3.19. It was a very dry and cold air mass and that low water count was offset by 8.05 inches of frozen precipitation at my location. I average about 40 percent more snow than PDX but this last month the snow was heavier along the I-5 corridor than it was at my location. Downtown Vancouver had over a foot on the ground last month. The bulk of my snowfall came over two days when 5 inches and 2 inches hit on the 10th and 11th of the month. The 8 plus inches I recorded is the second most in January since I started measuring in 2002. It does pale against the more than 16 inches that came in January of 2004. It is the 4th snowiest month since 2002 for me and it was well above the 3.3 inches I average in January. This season so far is the 4th snowiest winter I have dating to the 2001-2002 season. I am sitting at 13.85 inches thus far and I still have two potentially snowy months ahead. February and March average for me 1.28 and 0.91 respectively so it is possible that we could knock the number three season out since we just need a 1/4 inch to do it. I have not had ANY snowfall in February since 2014 when I had over 11 inches. I haven't had any sticking snow in March since 2012 when I had a crazy 7.85 inches. My gut says I'll get another 1/2 inch at least before the end of the season so there is a solid chance that this will go down as the 3rd snowiest winter since I started recording data in 2002.

January 12th, Downtown Vancouver

Overall this winter has been the rather chilly by our standards. We are blessed to have a very mild winter despite our northerly latitude of 45.6 degrees. Mind you that is substantially further north than much colder places like Minneapolis, Boston, and even Portland ME. Our close proximity to the Pacific Ocean and the protection of both the Cascades and Rockies from the wicked continental cold keeps us relatively warm. Our winters are rather short all things considered with about six weeks in the fro-zone. 

Here we are in February and the average temps will typically rise steeply. From Mid December to Mid January we are delighted if we get a day that tickles the 50 mark, but in February our average daily high is already approaching 50 degrees. we may not be finished with frozen precipitation but we are headed rapidly towards spring.

Later this week we may see some more snow and ice but it will likely be minor and only serve as a gentle reminder that winter does extend into March; officially at least.

Soak it up my friends, soak it up.

Wintry Winter This Winter Be

This winter of 2016-17 has been in a nutshell, cold. Well relatively that is, I know folks in the North Dakota would be sweating like a hog in June with these temps we have. But this is not North Dakota, is it?

The annual average snowfall at my location over the past 16 seasons has been just about 8.5 inches; yet this winter season nearing the halfway mark, I have already measured 13.75 inches of fluffy white snow. And this is where the "cold" part is, that snow has stayed on the ground now for 22 of the last 45 days. Over my 16 winters at this location my average for the whole season is 14 days with at least a trace of snow on the ground. We are at 22 at the halfway mark. Of course it is entirely possible that no more snow will fall all year. If that happens this current snow will still lie here another 4-7 days before warmer temps and rain can wash it away.

In fact, this new year has yet to produce a temperature above 40 degrees. My year to date warmest high is a cool 37.9 degrees and every day this year has had overnight lows below the freezing mark, including 4 below 15 degrees. Average low so far has been a chilly 22 and the average high just 34 both marks WAY below my 16 year averages of 32 and 42 for the opening 2 weeks of January.

Cold snaps are a normal experience for any winter in this region, but extended periods of cold lasting more than a week are a bit uncommon. Of the 14 days that have passed this year, 4 of them refused to break the freezing barrier and those that did often did so for a only a couple hours or so. According to my hourly readings Starting January 1st at 12:00 AM and continuing till today, January 15th at 12:00 PM, 232 of 348 hours were below freezing. The mean daily temperature this year has been 28.4 degrees which is well below the typical daily mean of 37 this time of year.

The NWS in Portland seems to think that all of this cold air will washout with the series of Pacific storms that are approaching the coast now. They have made similar predictions on two occasions this season in which the cold air was more stubborn than they expected. So tomorrow night when the first of these disturbances move through, we shall see just how entrenched this cold air is. Meanwhile long term forecasts are suggesting more snow could be on the way for next weekend.

After the last two winters that only produced snow on one occasion each and with paltry accumulations, this season is delivering the goods as a wintry winter.

Happy New Year!

Holy cow 2016 is totally gone; it's been completely blown away! 2016 came in with snow and left with snow :) 2016 was otherwise a pretty blah year in weather locally. December was cool and dry with low precipitation numbers but above average in the frozen variety.

December 2016 ended a warmish year on a cold note. I did not set any snowfall records but I did have 12 days of measurable snow/sleet. I did not get anywhere near any cold temperature records, not even my own 15 year mark. But this past month was notably cooler than normal with overnight lows averaging 31.67 about two under and daytime highs averaging 39.85 about three under.

The warmest day was the lone 50 degree day with exactly 50 measured on the 3rd of the month. The coldest mark arrived on the morning of the 16th when the mercury bottomed out at 25.2 degrees. This insured that 2016 would be a full calendar year with nary a temp under 20 degrees. The warmest overnight low came on the morning of the 3rd which not coincidentally would become the warmest day. The chilliest afternoon high was 30.2 degrees on the 15th; one of only 4 days that failed to get above freezing. Overall 15 days failed to make the 40 degree mark.

A typical December at my location nets about 8 inches of precipitation with 2.66 inches of snow. Of course with an average snow total that low, a typical December is any where from no snow to a foot and half. I measured a paltry 2.6 inches of total precipitation but an unusually high amount of snow with 5.8 inches piling up over 12 days. This was not a contiguous event but rather a collection of light snow days with minor accumulations. Only three of the "snow" days offered anything more than scattered flurries. The deepest the snow ever got was a mere 1.5 inches.

The year in weather according to my station was a year of fairly average and lacked any real extremes, anywhere. In all fairness we did record a record amount of rainfall for the month of October when more than 9 inches landed in the bucket. But seriously, the coldest day in the calendar year of 2016 was a relatively warm, 23.5 degrees last January. The hottest day was a hot but nay triple digits, when 99.3 bubbled up in August one of 12 days above 90 degrees which is about normal for us. The rain bucket collected 47 inches and for my location that is close to average but a couple inches shy. I ended up with 140 days of sunny or mostly sunny skies, 158 days with at least .03 in the rain gauge, A near but slightly lower than average snow total of 7.8 inches. 2016 gave us just 35 days with a temperature below freezing which is a bit less than the typical 45 or so. As mentioned above there was not a single day in 2016 the dropped below the really cold mark of 20 degrees. There were only 22 days that couldn't breech the 40 degree mark and the coldest afternoon high was 29.5 degrees in January. I had 15 days with measurable frozen precipitation coming in the form of snow, sleet, and freezing rain. This was a bit more than average but most of it was last month and only 4 days produced any "real snow" in excess of an inch. August was the warmest month with an average high of 82.1 well above the "normal" mark of 79. The coldest month was December with an average high of 39.9. The wettest month was oddly enough, October with a mark on 9.15 inches; the snowiest was December's 5.8 inches. The driest month was August, with just 2 days of rain and a mere .26 inch landing in the can.

Looking forward we are expected to get another blast of arctic air from those ever so friendly Canadians up north. Temperatures this week are expected to drop into the teens over the whole metro area and outlying rural areas will likely see single digits overnight. Daytime highs may linger in the twenties for most of next week. The big question short term is what happens when that fat juicy system out in the Pacific makes landfall next Friday? The experts have been watching all the computer models. Some were showing a big snow event for late next week, but it seems the gang at the Portland office of the National Weather Service has backed off that notion, for now.

Happy New year and here in the Pacific Northwest, bundle up, then get out and soak it up my friends, soak it up!