Weather Eye: We should have a few mostly dry days ahead

Rainy and breezy as forecast Wednesday and those east winds added to the wind chill, didn’t they? Sure felt like winter with the outside temperature feeling like 36 degrees or so thanks to our old friend from the Gorge.

As discussed the other day we go back into a split flow the next several days through the weekend and the folks in British Columbia will get the downpours with lighter amounts going into California, where they need every drop they can get.

Driving around I can see some people still cleaning up after our windstorm last weekend. Lots of branches down along roadways and fresh sawdust on the ground from chain saws. The east winds were raging in the Gorge Tuesday and Wednesday, with winds topping 90 mph at Crown Point and 50 mph in east county.

Still no sign of snow and with higher snow levels and lighter amounts of precipitation we won’t be building the snowpack much. Not to worry as this has happened many times with a lackluster winter snowfall and then a dozen cold wet snowstorms rage through in March and April, making spring skiing a delight. We wait on the weather.

I was expecting a half-inch or so of rain from the latest storm and as of early afternoon Wednesday we were approaching that number. We dry out by later today and the next few days look at least partly sunny or partly cloudy, depending on your outlook. The next round of light rain should arrive late in the weekend or by Monday.

Temperatures will be on the mild side at 50-plus degrees and lows around 40 degrees in Vancouver. The dampness next week will bring cooler high temperatures. We had some chilly weather early on in December, with lows in the 20s, but only two days of freezing this month.

Several readers commented that daffodils are sprouting upward and one person said their butterfly bush was in bloom. I think the daffodils pop up in January despite what kind of weather. The butterfly shrub? That might be a little odd. We love nature.

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