Happy New Year, everyone! December finally acted like the winter month it is with lows below freezing and highs in the low 40s around Clark County on Monday. Sorry about the early morning fog, which caused some frosty roadways, but it took awhile for the weak December sun to burn it off. The afternoon hours were mostly sunny and dry. More fog with freezing conditions was expected Monday night into this morning.
December was a month with less rainfall than normal, with 4.91 inches here in Vancouver, just under 2 inches below average. For 2018 Vancouver had 26.60 inches of rain, 12.54 inches below average. January will start off on a dry note and last perhaps into Thursday, as it will take the next weak weather system a while to drag through our area. Rainfall will be light and the same with another system over the weekend.
Still no real cold or snowy weather heading our way any time soon. This could be a winter without “winter” weather, but of course we still have two full months to go. The extended outlook for January is for warmer than average temperatures and of course the trend of drier than average precipitation. Still, I wouldn’t be surprised to get a quick shot of cold and snow in late January or early February.
I appreciate all the local weather observers who send in their monthly rainfall amounts to share with our readers. Many have records going back decades. Weather watcher Tyler Mode of Battle Ground sent me this: “It was 23 years ago December 26 that my dad and I installed a weather station at their house in the Minnehaha neighborhood. Over 8,400 days of recording weather! A special thanks to my dad and my brother for always keeping things operational (when the rain gauge clogs), measuring snow, and generally observing the weather from Minnehaha.”
Good job everyone, here is hoping for a great new year!
