Seemingly endless rain is a familiar feature of winter in the Pacific Northwest, but this month has been wet enough to impress even the most precipitation-hardened Clark County residents.
As of about 6 p.m. Tuesday, 9.98 inches of rain had fallen on Vancouver since the start of the month — 6.65 more inches than normal.
So far, this has been the third-wettest February on record in Vancouver, according to the National Weather Service. The wettest February so far was in 1996 when 10.58 inches of rain dumped on Vancouver. Next in line is February 1940 with 10.52 inches.
With about a week left in the month, will February 2017 break the record?
“Well, you know, I know for the Portland airport it seems like a slam dunk,” Andy Bryant, hydrologist at the National Weather Service, said only a couple of hours before his office declared the February record for PDX officially broken.
“It could get interesting (in Vancouver).”
Bryant said the possibility of February being a record-breaker in Vancouver depends on a well-placed shower coming to town over the next couple of days and on what weather hits the city on Sunday and Monday.
For now, setting a record “is a maybe, for the Vancouver airport,” he said.
In the coming days, there’s a good chance of rain and even a slight possibility of a little snow. There’s a 70 percent chance of rain Wednesday and a 40 percent chance of rain on Thursday and Friday. Through the rest of the workweek, temperatures are expected to be in the mid- to low 40s. The lows are expected to be between 31 and 33 degrees.
Bryant said the snow, if it comes, is going to be mixed with rain. The snow level is going to be at 1,000 feet in the next couple of days, but the showers might bring the snow level down into the city elevations at around 200 to 300 feet.
If snow does stick, it won’t be for long. Bryant said the warm ground temperatures will probably make it melt pretty quickly.
The skies should clear over Southwest Washington this weekend. The weather service is predicting Saturday and Sunday to be mostly sunny with highs in the mid- to upper 40s.
