February is done and now wears the Snow Crown

 

What's this snow crown baloney? I'll get to that later; first let's take a look at February's numbers shall we?

As the title at least in part suggests, we had some snow in February and not just a typical Western Washington dusting. The month was notably cooler than my 22 year average with daytime highs averaging 46.1º nearly three below normal, and morning lows averaging 32.5º which is two and a half degrees cooler than normal. The month was pretty dry as far as water content is concerned. 

Temps ranged from a high of 54.8º on the 9th to a low of 14.3º on the 2nd which was a 22 year all time low for February edging out the previous record by a mere two tenths of a degree. Now these are my records for my 22 years of reporting from this site, Vancouver's all time record low for February came in 1950 with a reading of -2º so we were no where near that. The chilliest afternoon high arrived on the 23rd with 31.3º which was also a 22 year record daily at this location. Three daily record lows fell last month and two daily record low max temps as well. February delivered eight days with temps above 50º and four days that failed to reach 40º. A dozen days dipped below the freezing mark overnight but only one day failed to rise above freezing. The warmest overnight low arrived on the morning of the 20th when the mercury only dipped to 43.8º. 

On the precipitation side of weather, February was actually a bit boring. There were just 4 sunny days the whole month and 14 rainy/snowy days. The wettest day was mere 0.29 inch on the 27th, which was one of just 3 days measuring more than 1/4 inch. The total water content was only a third of normal with 2.06 inches. There were six days with winter precipitation falling mostly as snow with the snowiest day being the 22nd when I measured 5 inches. The month of February ended up with 7.5 inches of snow. 

So what's up with the title? Snow Crown? The first dozen years of recording weather at this location February was always a distant third behind January and December in terms of average snowfall. But the last decade has seen February quietly moving closer to the December and January averages with several 'snowmeggeddon' events. This year for the first time in my 22 years of records February is now the snowiest month averaging 2.62 inches a year ahead of January which has fallen to 2.48 inches average and December which has been steady averaging 2.49 inches. I haven't had a big snowstorm in January since 2017 when the month recorded more than 8 inches. I've had three Januaries since then with ZERO snowfall. Historically, according to long time weather records, January has been the juggernaut for snowfall with 4.29 inches on average compared to paltry numbers for December and February at 1.4 and 1.1 inches respectively. So for now, February is the snowiest month at my house. I'd imagine that we will get some monster 'snowpocalypse' in January in the next year or so and that month will reclaim the crown. The chart shows February's snow fall versus the other months since the 01-02 winter season.

March looks like it' coming in like a lion we shall see if it goes out like a lamb.

2023 off to gloomy start

The first month in 2023 is now done and the verdict is: cloudy. This past month ran a bit warmer than average with overnight lows about 3º above average and daytime highs a single degree above normal. The month was relatively drama free but limited to just two days of sunshine which happened to come on the last three days of the month and under chilly temps. There was measurable precipitation on 21 of 31 days almost all of in in the form of rain. Just one day have snowfall and that only stuck for a few minutes measuring a trace of about 0.1 inch. 

Temperatures ranged from a chilly 13.4º on the morning of the 30th to a balmy afternoon high on the 8th of 52.6º. The warmest overnight low arrived on the 13th with 47.3º and the chilliest afternoon high arrived on the 29th with 38.1º. Obviously we managed to get above freezing on every single day in January 2023. We only had 4 days with temperatures below freezing and just the one day under 20º so really a rather uneventful temperature range. The 13.4º low on the 30th was not quite enough to break my local 21 year record for the day which was 13.3º and that is the coldest January day since I started keeping my records, so that was almost a monthly record low :) I did have a local 21 year daily record high last month recorded on the 9th with 51.2º. Another odd record was the high on 29th of 38.1º just barely edged out the previous record low maximum temp. 

January delivered a whopping 8 days with highs above 50º and only 3 days that failed to reach 40º. There were 11 days with overnight lows above 40º. The month delivered 21 rainy days against just 2 sunny days and the wettest day was a modest 0.51 inch on the 12th which was one of 7 days producing a 1/4 inch or more. Total rainfall was well below average with just 4.29 inches landing in my bucket. The only snow came in flurries of snow and graupel on the 23rd sticking only for a short while.

February can be a mixed bag as normal temps tend to float in the 50s by day and upper 30s by night. But deep freezes can happen as well as heavy snow, we shall see.