With cold temperatures and a little snow, it actually felt like a real winter in the lower elevations of Southwest Washington on Monday, and the National Weather Service said it could continue that way into the rest of the week.
After Monday night’s cold temperatures, the weather service issued a winter weather advisory from 2 p.m. today until 4 a.m. Wednesday for much of Southwest Washington. The Vancouver area could see anywhere between an inch and 3 inches, with up to 4 inches in some locations.
Drivers should plan for occasionally reduced visibility and slippery road conditions later in the day and during the evening commute.
There’s also a slight chance of snow Wednesday, but meteorologist Matthew Cullen cautioned the forecast isn’t a guarantee.
“When we have low elevation snowfall, that’s one of the most challenging parts of our forecasts,” he said. To actually get snow, “you have to have a deep enough layer of cold air and enough moisture … and it’s always tricky getting those two together.”
On Sunday night, they came together pretty well. The weather service took reports of up to 3 inches of snow in higher elevations in Hockinson and Camas. They even took reports of a couple inches of snow in Salmon Creek, around the 200-foot elevation mark.
A small change in a wet system will have a big impact on how much precipitation, especially snow, will fall. A variation of only a couple of degrees in a cool weather pattern will have a big difference if snow actually falls or even sticks around.
Wednesday through Friday will likely be rainy, and there’s a possibility it will snow again, but meteorologists will have to wait a few days to be more certain.
Conditions over the last few days were a fairly unique departure for what’s been a drier- and warmer-than-average winter.
Since Jan. 1, Vancouver has gotten 6.43 inches of precipitation, down from the normal of nearly 8 inches. Looking at the water year, which starts Oct. 1, the city has gotten 20.6 inches of rain, down from the 24-inch normal for this time of year.
Cullen said that’s not too bad in terms of rainfall. After all, a couple of big storms would be enough to put precipitation levels close to normal. But he said the bigger concern is the region’s current snowpack levels.
The Lower Columbia Basin’s snowpack is 87 percent of normal as of Monday, the lowest in the state. Due to La Niña, the northern part of the state has gotten the majority of the moisture. For example, the Upper Columbia Basin currently has a snowpack 125 percent of normal.
“In the region as a whole, the lack of snow is the bigger concern,” Cullen said. “The snowpack was still well below normal of where we should be, but we’ve seen some small improvement and that will likely to continue.”
