What a stark contrast from one end of our state to the other. At 4 p.m. Saturday, Vancouver was basking under clear skies, sunshine and 61 degrees. Bellingham was overcast with light rain and only 42 degrees with a stiff north wind. Kind of like spring in the south and winter in the north!
And oh, so it goes in March, such a fickle month. Can’t quite make up its mind betwixt winter and spring. Don’t let April fool you either: It can hold a wealth of weather surprises. But we greet the sunshine this weekend and brush off thoughts of those despicable, blustery, days sure to come our way.
Enjoy the warmth while we can as the weather in Bellingham foretells our fate from Tuesday into the weekend.
Snow levels will remain near the passes when the precipitation begins late Monday night, so good news there.
Heaver precipitation enters on Friday through the weekend, with maybe an inch or two of rain and higher snow levels.
March goes out like a lion? I think so. And a wet one.
I predict Vancouver will end up with 6 inches of rain for the month or close to it. Seattle, still shy of 8 inches, will top out at 10 inches maybe. That would be a record for March.
Last year, Vancouver measured only 1.58 inches for March, 2 inches below average. Seattle had 2.74 inches, 0.98 of an inch below average.
On Saturday — coincidentally, the last day of National Flood Safety Awareness Week — the National Weather Service in Seattle issued a flood warning and a flash flood watch for Snohomish County, set to continue until this afternoon, primarily because a landslide blocked the north fork of the Stillaguamish River near Oso.
Enjoy your week and we will chat on Tuesday!
Patrick Timm is a local weather specialist. His column appears Tuesdays, Thursdays and Sundays. Reach him at http://patricktimm.com.
