Good news, bad news. If you like snow and cold, it is melting away from the weather forecast. If you like plain old rain and seasonal temperatures, that is the good news!
Monday was overcast which kept the thermometer from rising above freezing but on the other hand, prevented overnight lows from dropping down into the single digits or teens of the past several days.
There were some snow flurries around Monday afternoon as I write this column and a few more were expected overnight along with maybe some freezing drizzle. If so, then the morning commute may have been a little dicey. You will know when you read this how that panned out.
Way too many temperature records to mention around the great Northwest with the arctic cold spell. It certainly has been a while since I saw lows in the single digits. My coldest was 5 degrees Saturday night. Much better Monday morning with 10 degrees thanks to the early arrival of the low cloud deck.
What is impressive, the average mean temperature for Vancouver this month is running nearly 12 degrees below average. It was 30.8 degrees early Monday. That means the average of our high and low temperatures didn’t even make it to freezing! Precipitation is running way below normal, so a very cold and dry month so far.
Never fear, that is going to change with warmer temperatures and some rain heading our way. By warm I mean closer to average in the upper 40s and no more freezing weather after today with the exception of Thursday morning, where we could still have enough cold air at the surface to cause some dicey conditions so keep tuned for that before you head out Thursday.
Bottom line: A chance of freezing precipitation through Wednesday then warming and wetter Thursday through the weekend. I do not see any return to cold or snowy conditions through Christmas. Rainfall is not targeted to be heavy either at this point. So we may not catch up to our deficit or build up a much-wanted great snowpack.
I will chat with you on Thursday and share last month’s rainfall from your friends and neighbors, barring any active weather.
Patrick Timm is a local weather specialist. His column appears Tuesdays, Thursdays and Sundays. Reach him at http://patricktimm.com.
