The sun has finally broken through the freezing fog that shrouded the region. It coated the roadways and trees early Wednesday with a layer of rime ice, creating a winter wonderland once again.
We should be done with freezing temperatures beginning later today. And instead of warmer air aloft, it will be colder up above and warmer down here, where we live. So we actually got out of this arctic deep freeze without too much of a hassle or damage.
Rain begins today and there’s a risk of showers through the weekend but everything will be on the light side. Not your typical winter rain, that’s for sure. We should be above freezing before the rain begins, except the typical areas near and in the Columbia River Gorge.
We did manage another nighttime low in the 20s Tuesday night in Vancouver, which if you count Wednesday night’s low, makes it ten days in a row below freezing. We had five days with highs below freezing. Remarkable, yes,and good for a quick note on the Christmas card back home to relatives.
I mean really now, most folks in the rest of the country think we are wimps who just chatter about the rain.
Just for fun, for the first 11 days of the month, we have had a high of 57 degrees on December 1, and a low of 9 on Dec. 8. Our average mean temperature for the month as of Wednesday afternoon was only 29.5 degrees, 12.2 degrees below normal. Precipitation was only a paltry .83 of an inch, 1.19 inches below average.
Bottom line: Increasing clouds and rain today, showers tonight and Friday. Next rain forecast on Sunday. Milder conditions, actually very seasonal highs in the upper 40s and lows in the upper 30s to low 40s. Another cold spell headed our way? In the not too distant future, computer models forecast a return to cold arctic air and maybe snow. But that is 10 days out. It will be model riding for us weather geeks the next few days.
Chat with you on Sunday!
Patrick Timm is a local weather specialist. His column appears Tuesdays, Thursdays and Sundays. Reach him at http://patricktimm.com.
