After 11 days of highs only in the 40s, that 52 degrees on Sunday felt like early spring, didn’t it? I bet a few of you took a stroll through the yard glancing at the spring bulbs popping up through the damp soil and buds swelling on the rhododendrons and other spring-blooming shrubs.
We haven’t had that much of a cold winter so far and nothing on the horizon to be concerned about, either. Just some off-and-on rain and showers the remainder of the week and highs at or above average for mid- to late January. Meanwhile, we wait for another tease of the white stuff in the air. The remainder of January looks fairly mellow and if any cold air is to reach us it would have to be in the first half of February. For snow lovers time is running out.
Our normal high temperature is now 48 degrees and about 50 by the end of the month. The average low is 36 degrees and I see no lows the next week or so that even dip into the 30s. The average mean temperature so far this month is still nearly 3 degrees above average. The lull in the rainfall has placed us back below average again.
While looking at the average low temperatures Monday for Vancouver, I noticed a record low of 6 degrees set way back in 1916. That was for Jan. 19. So, it can get chilly here. Perhaps February will bring us a cold spell like last year.
One correction from Sunday’s column with last month’s rainfall, Roland Dersken in Vancouver, B.C., measured 9.68 inches. Twice what we recorded here in Vancouver.
