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.

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.

 

Old Man Winter is Poking at Miss Spring

March has been on the chilly side thus far. It seems winter is not quite ready to let go nor pass the baton to Spring. There hasn't been any winter precipitation down in the lowlands but we have been dancing on edge with overnight lows in the 30s and daytime highs mostly in the 40s. Snow levels have remained down around 2000 feet and the snow is piling high in Cascades.

Today should mark a bit a warmer transition as the jet stream is riding up high allowing for some mild conditions to settle in for a bit. We might get to play with some spring 60s here tomorrow. Tomorrow is St. Patrick's Day and I have only had one March in 15 years of record keeping that had any significant snow accumulations after that day. Of course back in 2001 there was 1.6 inches that fell on St. Paddy's day and then in 2012 the snowiest March I have ever had at this location I had 3 inches on the ground on March 22nd. So we are by no means out of winter's grasp, but it is highly unlikely we will see any more sticking snow this season.

We had a second year in a row with sub-par snowfall down in valleys. I know that makes a lot of people quite happy. I like some snow in the winter personally so a paltry 2 inches is a bit weak sauce for this weather observer, but that's all we've had this season.

Here is the data for my snowy March in 2012.

Date           Snow    Depth

1-Mar	2.50	2.50
2-Mar		0.10
3-Mar
4-Mar
5-Mar
6-Mar
7-Mar
8-Mar
9-Mar
10-Mar
11-Mar
12-Mar
13-Mar	2.00	2.00
14-Mar
15-Mar
16-Mar
17-Mar
18-Mar	0.10
19-Mar	0.25	0.25
20-Mar
21-Mar	1.00	1.00
22-Mar	2.00	3.00
23-Mar		0.50
24-Mar		0.01
25-Mar
26-Mar
27-Mar
28-Mar
29-Mar
30-Mar
31-Mar

Wow a Chilly Month, Finally

November is done and for the first time in, I don't know how long, I have a calendar month that ended up chillier than average overall. The average daytime high was actually about 3 degrees above my 15 year "normal" but the overnight lows, largely fueled by the very chilly end of month was well below "normal" to the tune of -4 degrees. Overall my mean temp was about 1 degree below normal.

The very last day of month produced one of the chilliest November temperatures I have seen in nearly fifteen years at this location. The mercury bottomed out at 16.1 degrees to cap the end of a long streak of subfreezing mornings. That cold low on the 30th led to the chilliest afternoon high of the month at 37.1. The warmest day of the month was early on when we topped 65 on the 6th of the month. That may be the last 60 plus day we see till the end of February. On the 14th of the month we enjoyed a balmy 51.6 degree overnight low which was the warmest of the month and the only low mark above 50. Overall there were thirteen mornings below freezing and four that dropped below 20 degrees.

On the precipitation front we had one snow threat that delivered zero at my location but some flurries and light sleet were reported elsewhere around town. That of course was the 30th of the month. Rainfall was typical for November with a wet and soggy 9.17 inches which is a little more than an inch above my established normal. This was not the drippy variety as we had 12 days with more than a quarter inch and 2 days with more than an inch of H2O coming down. For the month we had 19 days with precipitation and just 8 under sunny or partly sunny skies. I hope this damp November is a precursor to the rest of the season because I have had two dry winters in a row. Let's not make it a third please.

The outlook for early December is mild and wet. Local weather prognosticators are calling for showery conditions beginning tonight and lasting into next week. Let's hope for soggy and maybe some fluffy white in time for Christmas. I know, a white Christmas in the 'Couv' is a rare deal. I have had but one since moving to this location almost 15 years ago.

Whatever the weather, get out and soak it up my friends, soak it up.

September is Toast : Hello Autumn

So the last of the summer has rode off into the sunset. Sure October can flash an 80 degree day... occasionally, but probably not. No my friends Autumn is upon us and although this last summer was very feisty I doubt she'll muster much more in the way of heat. Having said that there has been a precedent for a 90 degree day in October but you have go back to the days when a Mullet was fashionable to find it. Just say no to the Mullet and no to 90s in October.

September turned out to be a pretty standard fare with one day popping up over the 90 degree mark and a few days that failed to reach 60 degrees. Our very first 30s appeared for the season towards the end of the month and that is all pretty routine. Over all the month was a tad on the warm side trending with the rest of the summer this year. As has been the case all year long rain was light with a little more than have the normal amount hitting the bucket.

The warmest day was the 11th with a mark of 91.4 degrees and as mentioned the only 90 plus day. That was however the 18th day of 2015 that busted through the 90 barrier, which is about double the usual number for a calendar year at my station. The warmest temperature overnight was a mild 57.7 degrees on the 12th of course the evening following the 91.4 high so that fits like the proper puzzle piece. The coldest temperature came on the morning of the 28th when the mercury dropped into the 30s for the second time in September to a chilly 39.3 degrees. The coolest afternoon high came on the 6th under showery skies with 57.9 degrees. This was one of two days this past month that could gather enough strength to hit 60 degrees.

Overall the average daily high was 74.1 degrees about 2 over and the average low came in at 49.82 about 1.5 over. really this was a garden variety September.

On the water side, rainfall was light. It is not unusual for July, August and September to be dry, in fact they typically are. April, May and June however were very dry this year so we could have used a little extra this past month. No such luck would be had as the bucket showed 1.39 inches when a typical mark would be 2.47. The wettest day came on the 17th when a soggy 0.69 inches fell. This was one of 7 days with measurable rain. Only two managed to bring us more than a 1/4 inch. I had 19 days with mostly sunny skies and no frost.  

Nippiness Has Finally Arrived

Well friends, this autumn has been to say the least, mild.  This morning however was actually quite chilly for mid-November. The mercury bottomed out just before sun-up with a genuinely chilly 20.4 degrees. If it were late December of early January well, so what. But this is pre-Thanksgiving and that is a bona fide cold morning for this early in the season.

The great yellow orb is shining with an amazing radiance however and we should find the afternoon warming well into the 40s. We are going to get a little extended sunshine after two weeks of gloominess so you know the drill...

Yeah, Soak it up my friends, soak it up.

The Bugs are Acting Weird

Here we are in mid-November and I have yet to really see a cold day. In fact I have only had a couple of sub-freezing temperatures this season. Sure, it's been gloomy and cool, but we haven't had a chilly snap yet. Every time the sun peaks out and warms up the house those pesky yellow jackets start to buzz about. Those guys should have hibernated or died or whatever they do, by now. I know it's anecdotal evidence, but I think this could be an indicator. It has been a fairly warm autumn so far. Do those yellow jackets know something I do not? Since I am on the anecdote train, I have noticed the little sugar ants have been coming in the house late this year. They are normally gone for the winter by now as well. Maybe they are seeking a warmer spot inside because they sense something cold coming. Who knows, nature is always a step ahead of humanity. Enjoy the mild weather, some say the 'big chill' is coming a little later on in the season. And the bugs are acting weird.