Weather Eye: This dry spell could be with us for a while

The first day of May did not disappoint us with mostly sunny skies and highs in the upper 60s to 70 degrees around our area.

It was still chilly yesterday morning, with the official low in Vancouver at 37 degrees. I had a few reports of patchy frost once again in the Battle Ground area. We should begin to raise those overnight lows a bit as time goes on.

We all know that the last two weeks of April were on the dry side of things with little rainfall. Between April 20 and April 30, Vancouver only had 0.03 inches of rain. We did end the month about a quarter inch above average thanks to some downpours earlier in April.

I mention this because looking at weather forecast charts Monday afternoon, it appears little if any rain will fall in the first two weeks of this month. Our dry months typically begin in June and last through September. If the trend continues, it won’t bode well for a calm wildfire season.

There is plenty of green vegetation right now in the forest at ground level but that will begin to dry out quickly. We will remain in a northerly flow with low humidity for the most part. Remember to water your plants and gardens as the soil is drying out here, too.

The forecast the next week or so calls for mostly sunny skies. We could have some marine clouds on certain days, like today, but highs will range from 68 to 74 degrees. A warm weekend is on tap for us, too.

I was looking at the weather across the nation Monday afternoon and watched flooding in Chicago, snow falling in Michigan and tornadoes in the Midwest. And here we are in a fair-weather pattern. I mentioned the other day how dry the air was. Monday evening the dew point dropped to seven degrees and the relative humidity was at 9 percent. I have never seen it that dry in April (or any month) here in Vancouver, ever!

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