After rainfall record Wednesday, Vancouver gets some clearing

Breaking a rainfall record in March is a bit like playing whack-a-mole.

On some days the record is more than 2 inches, on others it’s more than an inch, and on about half of the days, it’s less than an inch.

Wednesday’s tally of 1.16 inches bashed a good low target — breaking the record of 0.72 inches set on March 5 in Vancouver in 1902, said Andy Bryant, a hydrologist with the National Weather Service in Portland.

But it wasn’t an earth-shattering event.

“The daily records are kind of all over the place,” Bryant said. “So our record (Wednesday) was kind of middle-of-the-road.”

The record for March 6 is 0.75 inches in 1932, and remains unbroken. Rain cleared Thursday and should remain clear into Saturday, he added.

“It looks like Friday is going to be just a little bit of shower activity, maybe some sun breaks, and then the next batch of rain shows up Saturday night and Sunday,” Bryant said.

The high temperatures should stay in the mid-to-upper 50s, or perhaps low 60s, through the weekend, he said.

“That certainly takes the edge off things,” Bryant said.

Portland also broke a rainfall record on Wednesday with 1.18 inches, breaking a record set in 1989 of 0.92 inches.