Slowly but surely the ice and snow continue to melt. Even though temperatures rose above freezing the combination of compact snow and ice and water on top of that made for sloppy roadways and sidewalks.
East winds continued and kept afternoon temperatures in the mid-30s for most of Vancouver while outlying areas like Battle Ground were 50 degrees. Showers will continue for the next several days as we remain in an unsettled weather pattern. Lower snow levels will be with us through the weekend, down to 1,500 to 2,500 feet. The foothills could see some wet snow.
I don’t recall January being this cold since 1979, as our average mean temperature in Vancouver is only 28 degrees, 13 degrees below normal. Vancouver has had only three days with highs around 40 degrees and only three nights above freezing. We managed to reach 37 degrees Wednesday for a high as of 4 p.m., the second day in a row with a high above freezing. We are doing just fine in the precipitation department so far this month.
We were lucky outside of urban street and small creek flooding, that we escaped major damaging flooding. Salmon Creek on Wednesday was running the color of gravy. It will be a while before all traces of last week’s snowfall are gone. Just as we warm up to the mid-40s today (hopefully) a cooler air mass settles in for the weekend with highs between 40 and 45 degrees.
