Cool March Breezes Through the 'Couv'

Another month is in the books and March was on the cool side by nearly every measure. This winter season was a fickle one for sure. December was seasonably chilly with some snow on Christmas. It was followed by a downright warm January which in turn was followed by a rather snowy February and a seasonable  March.

This past March was a bit chillier by night but spot on average by day. It was drier than average as well. Temps ranged from a low of 28.8° to a high of 69.8° these days coming on the 6th and 12th respectively. 2018 in Vancouver, WA remains without a 70° mark but some local areas did breech that barrier on the 11th and or 12th. The warmest overnight low was a 46° that arrived on the 13th; no surprise it followed the warmest day. The chilliest day time high came on the 24th with a winter-like 42.8° that cool afternoon followed a brief bout of snow in the morning. Overall the month of March was about 2° cooler than average by night and spot on by day. We saw five days with temperatures that fell below freezing overnight and two days which failed to get above 45°.

The rain gauge was certainly not overworked in March of 2018. I saw 2.89 inches which is well below my local 17 season average for March which is, 5.52 inches. The soggiest day arrived on the 17th with some scattered thunderstorms dropping a mere 0.55 inches. This was one of only five days over a quarter inch of precipitation.

The tiny and rather fleeting bout of snowfall in the early morning on the 24th produced just a skimpy quarter inch dusting but it was enough to push the winter of 2017-18 into 6th snowiest season since I've been keeping records (2001-02). At this point it is unlikely any more measurable snow will fall this season, I have however had snow well into April, just not much and not at all often. The 2017-18 winter season will likely end where it is now with 10.95 inches of snowfall that was distributed across ten days, lying on the ground for 16 days, with a maximum depth of 3 inches.

April is probably going to deliver the first 70° temp of the year, but I'll remind you all that sometimes it takes all the way until May for that magic mark to occur. In the meantime as we wait for the 'real' spring to arrive let's just revel in the springtime, the flowers, the warmer temps Yes, soak it up my friends, soak it up.

The Big Switcheroo!

Yes friends old man winter pulled a sneaky switcheroo on us this year. January and February seemingly switched positions. January was a warm month even by February standards with several daily highs broken, no snowfall and only a couple of days that dropped below the freezing mark. Kind of like February with wafts of spring. Then the real February showed up and within a few days it became clear the switcheroo was in play.

Although my average daily low temp for last month was still a bit warmer than an average for January it was close to spot on average for February. The average daily high last month was 3 degrees below my 17 season established "normal." The real switcheroo was the snowfall. I had a one inch dusting on the early am of Valentines Day that melted away in the afternoon and then some frisky cool air came in a few days later and I saw an inch on the 18th, a little dusting on the 19th and a bit of an on again off again 4 inch event on the 20th followed by two more days with an inch or more. 8.5 inches of snow in February is WAY above my 17 year average of 1.71 inches. In fact this is only the second February I have ever measured more than 6 inches for the month. 8.5 inches is second only to the crazy 11.1 plus we got back in February 2014.

I did have one daily record low on the 23rd when I awoke to a crisp 21.9 degrees. That was a record for me and for a number of areas around the metro. Early February has seen temps historically below zero with the record for the month at a Minnesota -3° back in 1950; but this late, the 23rd, 21.9° is legit chilly and it turned out to be the coldest temp of the month.

February seemed like a cold one with the above average snowfall, but the heavy cloud cover all month long actually kept things pretty warm, relatively speaking. Average low came in at 35.19° which is spot on my 17 year average and daily high average 46.69° well below my established norms. The warmest night was a toasty 47.8 on the 4th and the coldest daytime high was 33.8° on the 20th and it was accompanied by the 4 inches of snow. That day never had more than 3 inches on the ground as it snowed in two separate events about 2 inches in the morning, followed by mixed precip and some melt off, then another 2 inches later in the day. There were 8 days where the temperature managed to bust out over the top of 50° and we got close to a sixty when it was 58.8° on the 7th. We had seven days where the mercury could not push to 40° That turned out to be the week we had the snow and those low temps kept some snow on the ground for a week. The month ended with 9 days with a low below freezing and the aforementioned 7 days that failed to reach 40°

As for the precipitation it was cloudy but kind of dry really. Sure we had 8.5 inches of snow, but he water total in the bucket came in at only 2.07 inches and that is about a third of a typical February. We had 13 days with rain, 6 days with snow, but the wettest day was a paltry .36 inches. That was one of only three days to dump a 1/4 inch or more. We need more water down here and snow up there!

So March will once again be the wild card. Will it be an early spring or late winter? Today it is a bit of a tease as I am looking out the window to partly cloudy skies with peek-a-boo sunshine and a temp of 46.8° at 11:30am. Who knows, March can go either way. As it stands now this winter season is in a dead heat tie for 6th place on my annual snowfall chart with 2006-07 10.70 inches. Any amount of snow that falls before summer will knock 2006-07 into 7th. Over my 17 seasons of snowfall every February with 5 or more inches of snow has lead to a March with little or none. As it stands now I'd have to give the tie breaker to the 06-07 season as I had 19 days with measurable snow and a whopping 39 days with at least a trace of snow still on the ground. That crushes this season's totals of 9 days with measurable snow and 15 days with a trace or more on the ground. We only need a tickle to bump them, but it's just a silly snow chart, right?

Soak it up my friends, soak it up.