I was going to start with an April Fool’s Day forecast but after our wild March, I thought I’d better not fool around!
Shortly after lunch Saturday, something amazing appeared: the sun! After days and days of record-setting rainfall and flooding we were given a few hours of hope. I didn’t, though, see a rainbow in the east — maybe because the rain wasn’t over?
The Portland airport set a record for March rainfall early Saturday, surpassing the 7.52 inches of March 1957. At mid-afternoon Saturday, Vancouver was still about one half-inch off the March record — 8.38 inches in 1916. It was the third-wettest however.
East of the Cascades, Spokane had 4 inches in March by mid-Saturday, passing the 3.81-inch record of 1995. Their logs go back to 1889.
These amounts are way above the normals for November and December, our wettest months. Whatever statistics you use, it is the wettest March locally in decades.
When the month began, weather forecasters including me said we were done with measurable snow at city levels, major windstorms and flooding. Okay, I had to eat my words; maybe that’s why I was ill Monday evening — word poisoning?
Okay, you had your chuckle. We are off to a new start with April and those April showers will be included for the next few days. Tuesday and Wednesday, in fact, it may be another deluge.
Enjoy your splashy week, especially if it’s your spring break, and enjoy the sun breaks when they appear.
Patrick Timm is a local weather specialist. His column appears Tuesdays, Thursdays and Sundays. Reach him at http://weathersystems.com.
