April Showers and a heatwave!

April is in the books and not surprising, she was rather fickle and feisty. The month started out with a some chilly weather including lows below freezing and highs int eh middle 40s. That's chilly in April. But it didn't take long for Mr. Hyde to switch back to Dr. Jekyll and some nice spring weather presided over several days early in the month. Up and down and back and forth Miss Spring toyed with us in April. The showers we expect in April were a bit under the typical. Towards the end of the month Mr. Hyde emerged again and this time he was a bit 'hot' under the collar with the first 70° mark coming in at nearly eighty degrees and temperatures that would get into the middle to upper eighties.

On the thermometer we saw a seesaw of action. The coldest mark cam on the morning of April 3rd with a sub freezing 30.4° one of 11 days with lows in the 30s which is a bit many for this late in the year. The chilliest afternoon high was the day of the fool, April 1st when the mercury topped out at a nippy 46.8°. On the other end of the spectrum the warmest temperature was a toasty and very July-like 86.4° on the 26th. That hot day followed the first eighty plus mark of the year on the 25th when it was 82.9 and that followed the aforementioned first 70 when it was 79.7° on the 24th. The weird part was that the day after the scorcher only managed a high of 55.9°. What a quick departure from summer and back to "early" spring conditions. Average temps over the month were a tad above my 17 year average with 43.7° low and 60.84° high, 2 and 1 degree over respectively.

Nearly all of the month's rain came in the first half and only 2.8 inches hit the pan well shy of my typical 4.24 inches. Nary a flake of snow fell in the valley but there was quite a bit of low elevation snowfall for April with the local foothills getting several dustings over the month. The higher foothills such as Silver Star still have bits of winter clinging to the surface here in May. The wettest day was the 7th when I recorded 0.61 inches.

So far May is starting out rather cool and uneventful. The weather gang at NWS Portland seem to think some nice spring weather with highs in the low to mid 70s are coming up later this week. Springalicious!

Soak it up my friends, soak it up.

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.