Weather Eye: Enjoy sunshine now, as chance of light rain looms

What can I say about Monday’s fine weather? Ahh. I’ll say it again: ahh. What a good feeling against the face the sunshine gave us, despite being low in the horizon.

Here are some observations I noted. Afternoon temperatures in Clark County were into the low 60s as of 4 p.m. The coastal beaches were actually warmer with temperatures in the 65- to 70-degree range in Washington and 75 to 80 degrees in Oregon. It just doesn’t get better than this in February.

I saw a Facebook post from Long Beach of beachgoers basking in the full sunshine on beach chairs and wearing shorts and sandals.Why aren’t we at the beach?

Spring fever: There were plenty of us in the afternoon donning shorts and sandals — at least no need for jackets or sweatshirts. The mountains were also balmy with temperatures in the ski areas in the 60s.

A few mountain reporting stations were in the 70s. East winds were howling through the Gorge at Crown Point Vista House with winds nearly 100 mph as reported by local weather observer Tyler Mode of Battle Ground. Here in Vancouver, you sure didn’t feel that, only gentle easterly breezes for many and dead calm elsewhere.

Two years ago, it was a different story as the snow came down heavily with a foot in Salmon Creek on Feb. 8 and temperatures ushered in by cold east winds were in the 20s. Remember that? Seems like a distant memory compared to Monday and today.

So where do we go from here? Strong high pressure is still over us, but several weather systems will try to penetrate and bring rain. The first one, Wednesday, will most likely fizzle out with just some cloudiness over us. The second one, Thursday, will do the same thing, with most of the precipitation north of Clark County. We’ll see if we get a little light rain — highly possible, so stay tuned.

Some forecast models for the weekend want to bring in clouds and rain, and others not so much. Meanwhile, enjoy sunshine today!

Patrick Timm is a local weather specialist. His column appears Tuesdays, Thursdays and Sundays. Reach him at http://patricktimm.com

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